Shining In The Darkness
by Feonyx
Summary: It is the final battle, the last clash between the remaining Adepts, Orian, and Lycoris. There are still surprises to come, though, and who can say what it really means to be shining in the darkness? It's done, so review!
1. The Quest Of The Alchemist

**One year ago…**

It was past midnight when Kieran slipped out of bed. This was more important than sleep, both sides agreed. In the darkness you could see the stars perfectly in the sky. Except one had fallen, slipped from the pure black fabric of the sky and plummeted to the ground, into the trees outside the village.

Kieran slipped out of the house silently, closing the door without the merest sound. No one would be awake at this time, but that was no reason to avoid caution. At least, that was what one voice said. The other said that anyone else was an insignificant nothing who wasn't worth allowing to follow you.

Through the village, past the gate, into the trees. The star was still glowing brightly, shining like a beacon between the trees. Almost magnetic, really. Kieran was drawn to it in a way that seemed totally unstoppable. Both halves agreed, it needed to be found. Anyway, it wasn't hard. The light radiated through tree trunks, warming them to a pale glow. At the centre of the aura the star was embedded in the ground, rising out of it like an arrowhead in the flesh of the forest.

Now the light was beginning to fade, flowing into the earth. Great power was being released from this… now, closer, Kieran saw that it wasn't a star. A foolish thought anyway, said the second side. There's nothing wrong with hoping, the first replied.

It was a crystal of some kind. Shining, though no moonlight and little starlight reached through the black branches above. Kieran suspected that it was purple, though every hue of the rainbow rose and fell in its glow, pulsing like a heartbeat. 

Kieran reached out and touched it, and though it resisted the pressure of fingers and palms, there was no feeling of contact. But at the touch it flared with light, summoning it up from its core and blazing out from those points, as though the feather-light brushing had torn through the shell of a paper lantern. It turned like a searchlight, shining into Kieran's face. It was blindingly bright, and hot like the noon sun in midsummer, tirelessly burning. No. No, not hot. Cold. So cold that it burned.

Then that was gone, and memories shattered. They flew together again, imperfectly, missing pieces. And then everything split. The light faded, and Kieran looked up into Kieran's eyes. And Orian looked back at Lycoris.

**Shining In The Darkness**

A Tale of Sol and Luna

Chapter One: The Quest of the Alchemist

**Vale, present day…**

He really should have expected this, Isaac decided. His life was getting slightly closer to perfect every day. Especially in the last few days… Naturally Kraden would want to talk to him about something 'of the utmost importance'. The last time something important had been related to Kraden, the important thing had been the fate of the world and the beginning of the most dangerous time in his life.

It started off as fun. Himself and Garet, a couple of kids who had seen the sacred heart of Sol Sanctum and touched the Elemental Stars, setting out on a quest to save the world. Just like he always imagined.

Catching thieves and retrieving the treasures of a nearby village was a blast. Several, really, when Garet gained the power of Fire Psynergy. Meeting another Adept -Jupiter, at that- was something Isaac had never expected.

Breaking the curse on a holy tree and saving a village as well as an ancient forest had to be enough for any hero. Then they travelled north to Imil, where he… well, _they_, but Isaac always thought of it as when _he_ met Mia, and climbed the awesome Mercury Lighthouse. They had failed to stop it from being lit, but it was still a great adventure. And there was always more.

There was _always_ more. The quest kept going, to the south, across deserts and seas. To Tolbi, and Lalivero, Venus Lighthouse, and more, ever onward…

They won in the end. All of them: Isaac, Garet, Ivan, Mia, Felix, Jenna, Sheba, and Picard. Friends he wouldn't give up for anything… especially Mia. But sometimes Isaac wondered, even though he lived, if the quest hadn't taken his life anyway. Taken everything he had. Garet would say he was being introspective, which was practically an insult on the tongue of a Mars Adept. Ivan would say he should leave the thinking to Jupiter Adepts.

Mia would say he worried too much, thought too little of himself. Probably laugh, like she usually did when he said something completely ludicrous. Maybe kiss him. It was definitely worth checking. She really did seem to love him. Sometimes he wondered…

He was at Kraden's house, having wandered the paths of Vale by memory. He'd probably still be able to do it when he was ninety. Blindfolded.

Isaac opened the door -Kraden never cared about people barging in any more than the rest of the villagers, and usually preferred it, since it meant he didn't have to leave whatever experiment he was working on- and entered. "Kraden, I hope you realise this is time I could be spending with-" Isaac thanked the Spirits that he managed to cut himself off before the name 'Mia' when he saw the rest of the Adepts there, lounging around on Kraden's never-used furniture.

Garet, his ever-annoying best friend in the world, looked up at him and said, "I believe the word you're looking for is 'Mia'. And lots of us have people we'd rather be with, Isaac. You're nothing special."

"I'm right here," Jenna pointed out, an arm appearing from behind the sofa Garet was lying on and falling across his chest.

"Was I talking about you?" asked Garet, raising himself up to lean over the back of the sofa.

"Yes," said Jenna, rising to meet him.

"Only by chance," he said, grinning, and leaned closer.

"Oh, get them away from the fireplace," said Picard, his legs over one arm of a chair and his back over the other. "Blasted Mars Adepts. Heat goes straight to their heads."

"At least it'll keep them from interrupting," Felix commented, leaning against the wall in a corner.

"By default," Picard added dryly, still watching Garet and Jenna. Kraden entered from the other room, still wearing the protective mask he had for alchemical experiments.

"Stop gawking," said Kraden, taking off one of his thick work gloves and smacking Picard in the back of the head with it. "At our age it's considered perverted." Felix snorted with laughter- no one, including Picard (or so he would have them believe) knew Picard's true age. The mystic draught of the Lemurians slowed the aging process so much, he looked twenty and could have been a hundred or more.

"I did ask you to come here for a reason, you know," said Kraden, looking around at the Adepts. "There is much to disc-"

"Wait, wait, what about the others?" asked Isaac. The rest of the Adepts looked up. Isaac followed their gaze to the rafters, only a few feet above his head, where Ivan and Sheba were sitting opposite each other. They were cross-legged, and only as Isaac looked up did Ivan open his eyes.

"Oh. Hey, Isaac. Just been talking with Sheba," he explained. Jupiter Adepts, of course, could read minds. If they read each other's thoughts, it was essentially a telepathic conversation.

"And Mia?" continued Isaac. There was a soft touch on his shoulder. Isaac spun and looked into bright aquamarine eyes. "Oh. Well then," he said with a smile, his eyes not leaving her face, "I guess you can start, then."

"Thank you," said Kraden with absolutely no sincerity. "You know, all these intra-group romances make it very difficult to get anything done."

"There are only two," said Sheba.

"Three," Kraden corrected her.

"For the last time-!" Ivan began.

"All right, let's just get to the point," said Kraden, holding up his hands in what could be called surrender but was more likely 'this is what I have to put up with'. "The fifth lighthouse has been found." There was a moment of silent thought.

"Didn't know it was lost," Garet commented.

"Didn't know it existed," Felix added.

"Didn't know anyone was looking," Mia pointed out.

"Fifth?" asked Isaac.

"Oh yes," said Picard, with his usual anti-sunny demeanour in these situations. "There are five. The Lemurians have known that for centuries. The four elements. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars: water, earth, wind, and fire."

"And the one that lies between them all, the element of balance. Sol. Light," Kraden continued. "That is why Sol Sanctum is the place where all the Elemental Stars were held. The Sanctum is in balance more than any other place we Adepts have known. And so the Stars there strengthened each other, in an environment where no one element reigned over the others."

"Yes, good, mystical, I like it," said Jenna, trying to hurry him up. "What's this about the Sol Lighthouse? And wait, if Light is an element then why aren't there any Sol Adepts?"

"When was the last time you met a person in perfect balance? Even Isaac and Felix, skilled leaders though they may be, and Wielders of the Sol Blade too, are not masters of everything. They don't have the might that can only be found in Mars, nor the wisdom of Jupiter or the compassion of Mercury," Kraden explained, gesturing to the other Adepts as he named their elements.

"Thank you," muttered Felix, and would have crossed his arms if they weren't already.

"Elements of Psynergy are based on personality, and people are unbalanced. So Sol Adepts might exist, as far as we know, but it's not likely. Unfortunately, very few things are certain about Light."

"Tell us more about the Lighthouse," said Sheba.

"I'm not sure where to begin…" said Kraden.

_For many ages alchemists have wondered about the possibility of the Sol Lighthouse. Some have theorised that it is the very sun, shining down on the world, giving it life. But the Lemurians know differently._

Lemurians, who are born with Psynergy, and use it as easily as their arms and eyes. The ancient ones, who know the truth behind the Stone of Sages and the balance of Psynergy. They know that there is, as there are four lighthouses that act as beacons and foci for the elements, a fifth that acts as sovereign over all the others. Keeping them within their bounds, keeping any one from running out of control and dominating over the others.

The Sol Lighthouse is the source of all the Psynergy that permeates the world. The Sol Star has always dwelt there. It is locked within the core, and with it the Lighthouse always shines. That light -Psynergy- holds the world together at a fundamental level. With the star, Wayard is a place of wondrous powers. Without it, life could not exist, and the ground would crumble.

"Okay, that's bad," said Ivan. "Thanks for explaining 'bad' to us."

"So what's the danger?" asked Mia.

"Oh, come on. Even I can see that," said Garet. "_Without_ the wisdom of Jupiter. And let me point out that Mercury people are way too naïve for their own good. Anyway, someone who wanted a great big hunk of power and wasn't Jenna-"

"Oh gods, he's started making jokes," muttered Picard, covering his face with his hand.

"-Could get the Sol Star and have the source of Psynergy. Which is bad because anyone who goes after it definitely shouldn't have it, and then the world would fall apart," he finished.

"Succinct," Sheba commented.

"So now that it's been found- wait, what do you mean, 'it has been found'? Who was looking?" asked Mia.

"Most alchemists know about -or at least believe in- the Sol Lighthouse. We all have our ways of searching as we study the powers of Alchemy. It's just one more study, really. Babi will have found it by now. Some Lemurians at the very least will know. There are many who are learned in the secrets of Alchemy," said Kraden.

"Would it kill you to speak sentences in the right order?" asked Garet.

"All right, someone get him away from the fireplace. He's getting on my nerves," Kraden ordered.

"See? It's not that hard," said Garet as Jenna dragged him across the room by one arm.

"But if only the wise people know about the Sol Lighthouse, what's the danger? Surely Babi isn't going to send a bunch of Colosso champions off to get the Star," said Felix.

"No. But there's a reason we've found the Lighthouse at last, I believe," said Kraden.

"What?" asked Ivan eventually.

"Someone has broken the seal. Someone, therefore, with the power to defeat Sol Psynergy."

****

[Author's Notes] And there you have it, the beginning to the least game-based story I've ever written for Golden Sun. I should add the disclaimer that if this is in any way contradictory with the as-of-yet unreleased-in-English Golden Sun: The Lost Age, deal with it. I'm assuming nothing groundbreaking happens at the ending and no one good dies. Beyond that, it doesn't really matter, because… well, that would be giving it away. All reviews are welcome where not demanded, especially those that actually comment on the story (though I'll take what I can get). So get to it and I'll get started on the next chapter.


	2. Halfway 'Round The World

****

Shining In The Darkness

A Tale of Sol and Luna

Chapter Two: Halfway 'Round TheWorld

"We're going to need more information than that, I think," said Isaac.

"What's so important about a seal?" asked Mia. "It might keep you out, but you could still find it."

Kraden looked at them gravely. "If the Sol Lighthouse were on Wayard's surface, we would have found it centuries ago. Or someone would have. As it is," Kraden explained, "the tower's location is better hidden than that. So alchemists are forced to use other methods." He looked at the Adepts around the room, then down at the floor and sighed. "Follow me."

Picard swung his legs over his head, then back down and flipped out of the chair with a sort of lever motion. Ivan and Sheba made their way down from the crossbeams, and the Adepts entered the most secret part of all Vale. More people had seen Sol Sanctum than Kraden's workshop.

The wooden door was nothing impressive, at least not on the outside. The inner side of it was plated with iron and rather badly scorched. Around the rest of the room were tables and shelves, and about a half-dozen experiments seemed to be half-finished and lying on the tables.

"Breathe on nothing," Kraden warned them darkly. "Try not to look too hard at that one, either."

"Which one?" asked Ivan.

"If I told you you'd look at it. The one that matters right now is this device," Kraden told them.

"What _are_ all of these?" asked Jenna.

"Inventions of mine in the study of Alchemy," Kraden replied. "I have yet to do anything with true Sol Psynergy, but combining all the elements can get some impressive effects."

"Oyah," said Felix, remembering the power of the Summons tablets that united the powers of different elements. Those spirits had saved them more than once.

"Here," said Kraden, gesturing at the construction. "Stone brackets and a clay bowl filled with pure water, kept in motion by this fan-"

"I particularly like the logo 'Xian, Silk Capital of the World'," Picard commented.

"What?" asked Kraden.

"No one ever wonders what the kanji mean," the Mercury Adept muttered.

"And lit with these two torches," Kraden finished meaningfully. "With a Psynergy stone to give it power, this will seek out anything and everything in the world. My own method for searching for the Sol Lighthouse. But I've never been able to hunt it down."

"Hunt it down?" repeated Garet, disbelieving. "With a bowl of water?"

Kraden shook his head and pulled a small purple crystal out of a deep pocket. He placed it on the top of the hinged post that clasped the end of the open fan. Immediately the fan started waving, just slightly but building in force, and the surface of the water began to ripple and slosh. The glow of the two torches in their stone brackets flared up brighter, and lights began to dance on the surface. It was almost hypnotic…

The ripples wavered, but they were obviously being shaped. It was a tower, standing tall and shining out like a beacon…

And then it drew them in deeper, and it was more than just ripples on the water. The lights dancing in the water touched their minds, and they saw it as clearly as if it were right in front of them. The Sol Lighthouse was like a monolith, stretching into the sky until it seemed as though it would touch the stars above. It was impossible to tell what it was made of, but its sides were white and gold, untouched by time or weather, and perfectly reflective.

Its doors were flung open, and only they were marked. Marked is one way of putting it; they were charred, broken, and misshapen, half fallen off. Through the doors a hall extended, going onward until the light faded and it was claimed by pure shadow.

If one could drag their eyes away from the great tower, they could see the land around it was barren and grey, with only occasional rocks sticking out of the ground. It was flat, and stretched out all the way to the horizon. Probably further.

Suddenly a light flashed from the Lighthouse's top. The Adepts looked up at it, and it pulsed again, bright as the sun. When their eyes cleared again, they were still within Kraden's workshop.

"I think I see what you mean," said Jenna.

"That was a rush," Isaac gasped.

"Does it always do that?" asked Mia.

"No," said Kraden, gravely. "No, only once before have I been drawn in by the Mirror."

Felix considered this with a degree of uncertainty. "It wouldn't happen to be the Mirror _of_ anyone in particular, would it?"

"Mirrors are the symbol of Sol, as branches represent Venus and water jars are for Mercury," Sheba explained. "If this is anyone's mirror, is would be for the Sol Spirit."

When no one said anything for a moment, Ivan leaned over to Sheba and said "That was a little creepy."

"I just don't get it. I try, but it comes out all mystical," Sheba said, annoyed at herself. She looked at Ivan. "There, you see? I can do it when I'm talking to you. You make it easy."

"What were you saying, Kraden?" asked Ivan, before anyone had time to make a comment.

"Once before, when Sol Sanctum's seal was first broken, the Mirror drew me in. That was how I was able to warn the elders before the Boulder fell- I saw what was happening almost before it happened," Kraden replied.

"And we all know how that went," said Isaac meaningfully. Felix looked away from the others.

"So we need to get to Sol Lighthouse," said Jenna.

"And stop whoever's broken in from whatever they're trying to do," Mia added.

"Sounds like fun. Someone who can defeat Sol Psynergy, oh yes, great person to be enemies with," Garet muttered. "Okay, where is it?"

"That's the reason no one's ever found it on the surface of Wayard," said Kraden. "It's not _on_ the surface of Wayard."

"Oh, let me guess, let me guess," said Ivan. "From the ground around it, and sheer ironic force, it's on the moon."

"Thankfully we're not listening to half-pint's advice," said Picard, ruffling Ivan's hair in the way he knew would most aggravate. "Although if we were dealing with someone who liked a good joke, he'd probably be right."

"Okay smart-aleck," said Ivan, escaping the Lemurian's reach, "where is it?"

"It's underneath the planet," he replied simply.

_See the world called Wayard as it soars through space. A discworld, nearly flat and roughly circular. The upper side is a bright world of forests, plains, mountains, and a vast ocean. But when the sun sets it goes below the world, and that place is all the things the upper is not, because all things must have an opposite. It is barren and dusty; the soil doesn't have enough nutrients to support plant life. _

And, if you keep in mind that down is always toward the ground, the land slopes upward, to the very centre, where a lighthouse stands. The Lighthouse of Sol.

"I still like my answer, but Picard seems to know what he's talking about," said Ivan.

"I was just listening to how Kraden said 'not on the _surface_ of Wayard'," he explained. "No one says it like that unless they think they're about to be clever."

"No one should look your age _and_ have your knowledge," Kraden growled. "He's right, though. You'll need to go underneath. Straight to the edge of the world, then right over and under."

"And I suppose we'll just conveniently stick to the bottom, will we?" asked Garet, slightly sarcastically.

"I don't see why not," Kraden replied.

"I'd rather not risk an eternal plummet into the depths of space over 'I don't see why not'. On the other hand, being us, there's a good chance it'll all work out in our favour, isn't there?" 

Jenna put her hand on Garet's shoulder. "Now you're getting the hang of it."

"Okay, good, but honestly Kraden," asked Isaac. "How long do we have, and how long will it take to get there?"

"For you, if you used every advantage you have, only a few days. As for how long you _have_, well, that depends more on who found their way in."

"Perfect," said Lycoris, looking around. Her dark hair swirled elegantly as she spun, face upturned as though she was bathing in the light that shone from all directions. "Too easy, in the end."

"Only for us," said Orian. "Only for those who are worthy to stand in such a place. Those who know the greatest secrets of the nature of the world. And we worked long for our wisdom."

"You're too serious," Lycoris admonished him. "Not that just anyone could waltz in here. You're right, of course. Only we are worthy of entry."

Orian glared at her, eyes narrowing seriously. "Only we have gained it so far. That is not the same as saying that no one else ever shall."

"There's no one else like you, or like me, in the entire world, Orian. We are unique. And superior. Now the power that we have worked for, all that we deserve, shall be ours," Lycoris stated, and moved on. Orian watched her go, shifted haughtily in his perfect white robes, and followed.

"This is the best plan you've got, is it?" asked Isaac.

"Your fear of water is not my problem," said Picard, throwing the gangplank into position. "And this isn't true Lemurian make, but they've got the idea, so we might as well use it. Besides, what's faster than a ship?"

"Well, there's always- hey, I don't have a fear of water," Isaac retorted.

"Did I say you did?" asked Picard, totally innocent.

"Yes!"

"Come on, Ivan!" said Garet, hauling a trunk onboard. "We want to get there fast!"

"Then why are we weighing it down with huge boxes apparently filled with bricks?" demanded Ivan, straining under the weight. Sheba coughed politely and lifted it off him with Carry Psynergy. "Oh. Right."

"Just wait, soon enough we'll be taking this stuff on foot. Well, some of it," Picard told them.

"How much of this is necessary supplies and how much is just an excuse to restock your boat, Picard?" asked Felix, joking and yet serious at the same time.

"That depends on how much we'll need to reach Sol Lighthouse," Picard replied.

"So, about half, then."

"Ready for our part?" asked Garet.

"So ready," Jenna replied. "I haven't been properly worn out in weeks."

"Where, exactly, does Kraden get his mythril from, anyway? I mean, I'm glad to be carrying Psynergy Stones with us, but the fact that he's taken the time to weave sacks out of metal is strange," Mia commented, slinging them over her shoulder.

"Is that it?" called Picard from the bow of the ship.

"Just a second!" Isaac reached out with his hands, and then with his mind, grabbing the last crate and flinging it towards himself. It arced through the air and technically he caught it, although the momentum pulled him over backwards and pinned his arms to the deck. "That's it!"

Picard's Black Orb flashed and, slowly first, the ship slipped away from the almost-new Vault Trading Docks and onto the river. It moved by a power that had never quite been made clear to most of them, except that it was a very old Psynergy, and Picard was a master of it.

The voyage down the rivers was uneventful, and seemed almost anticlimactic. But they had already said good bye to the people of Vale, and none of them liked to leave the village if at all possible. Now it was just the path ahead, waiting to be blazed. After an hour or two, they reached open water, and then the real blazing started.

"Okay, I don't think we're likely to set any forest fires at this range. Do it!" commanded Picard.

"Someone will have to teach him how to be a sensitive captain someday," said Garet, getting up.

Jenna didn't answer, except when she raised both hands over the stern of the boat and called out "_Dragon Fume!_" Garet did the same, casting Heat Wave Psynergy. Trailing twin streaks of fire, the ship rocketed out west across the ocean. Toward the edge of the world.

****

[Notes] Apologies to anyone who actually cares enough to have been kept waiting, but this is pretty fast for someone like me. Anyway, all reviews are welcome, good or bad or critical (by the way, Miss Black Dragon, I admit you may have a point in your second case but I assure you the first one was just fine…). The third will be up in, well, probably just as long as this one took. And of course, credit goes to Vilya for playing muse and everything else.


	3. Behind Stars and Under Hills

****

Shining In The Darkness

A Tale of Sol and Luna

Chapter Three: Behind Stars and Under Hills

"Do we have a plan for this part?" asked Felix, edging his toes over the rim. Yes, there was still a downward pull. "I mean, do we know for sure that we're not going to just plummet into oblivion?"

"Oblivion sure looks a lot bigger close up," Jenna commented. She was standing with Garet, and they were both staring out at the night. To either side, the world curved away, jagged at times, but certainly circular. The Adepts were gathered on a rocky point just at the edge, with water rushing away around them, over the edge and into the clouds of mist.

Ahead, there was only blackness and scattered stars. It was tremendously unnerving to see stars below and in front of you. The air was thin, too. Isaac thought that if he leaned over too far he'd probably lose consciousness and slip right over, straight through the clouds and into the nothingness forever…

"Isaac, snap out of it," said Ivan.

"We so don't need you thinking like that right now," Sheba added.

"Do you two make a habit of monitoring my thoughts?" demanded Isaac.

"They can be quite entertaining," said Sheba innocently.

"Stay out of my head, you dwarf!" said Isaac with mock-seriousness, and lightly whacked Ivan in the back of the head.

"Hey!" protested Ivan, covering himself against further assault. "Sheba said it, not me!"

"Yeah, but… she's a girl," said Isaac.

"And the revolution strives onward," commented Mia, passing by to look over the edge.

"Do we have a plan for this part?" asked Picard, making the final check to see that his ship was properly moored. Felix leaned theatrically over the edge and cupped a hand to his ear.

"That's one hell of an echo. It sounded just like you, Picard!"

"We could push him over and see what happens," suggested Garet dryly.

"I think you should leave this up to us," said Ivan. "Ready, Sheba?"

"Ready." Sheba closed her eyes and extended an arm in each direction. The air shifted subtly. Ivan took a deep breath and ran, leaping over the edge. Sheba moved her arms forward and the air rushed after Ivan, following him down and preparing to become a strong updraft if necessary. The other Adepts watched as Ivan shot through the clouds layer and out of sight. Nothing happened for a moment.

"Sheba," said Garet, "I think you might want-"

"YAAAAAAA!" screamed Ivan as he rose up like a peasant army against a tyrant. He came back up to about the level of the ledge, missed grabbing hold of anything, and fell back down. A moment later, the process repeated, though he didn't come up quite so high.

"Sheba, stop messing with him and get him back up here, will you?" said Felix tersely, but when he looked at Sheba she had stopped using Psynergy and was watching Ivan's rises and falls with surprise -not to mention a lot of giggling.

Sheba noticed the look Felix was giving her. "I think he'll reach equilibrium soon, don't worry." Everyone's expressions went blank except for Picard, who simply looked quizzical. "I think the gravity switches directions when you go through the clouds. Underneath them, down is our up, above them, it's the way we think it should be."

"So he's falling, but when he goes through the clouds he's suddenly _rising_ because he's still got momentum, and then it all happens backwards…" Jenna realised. "But he's going a little less distance each time."

"I'M GLAD THIS IS SUCH AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE FOR YOU PEOPLE!" shouted Ivan from over the edge.

"Are we ready?" asked Isaac.

"No," said Picard.

"But we're not going to get any readier, either," Felix added.

"Well then," Garet muttered, and leapt over the edge, holding tightly on the straps of the pack he carried. The others followed, and Picard made a point of aiming for Ivan so that the two of them were both pushed through to the other side.

There was a moment of debilitating dizziness as the Adepts passed through the clouds, where no direction looked like or felt like up, and then they were through, most definitely upside down. Most of them managed to flip around right side up in time -Garet landed on his back and Ivan was still upside down, though Picard put him down the right way- and were faced with a vast barren plain.

Just as they had seen within Kraden's mirror, the land was a wide, dusty, and grey expanse of flatness, punctuated only with rocks and occasional stalagmites, though their existence was inexplicable. It stretched on endlessly, curving to either side just as the upper half did, and all fractionally uphill, towards the centre.

"This ought to be thrilling. How long are we walking? A month?" asked Garet.

"Keep it up and I'll make you carry me," Jenna responded.

"What makes you think you can make me do anything?"

"Because I have absolute power over your very existence and can make you dance like a puppet at my every whim?" she suggested innocently.

"Don't let the fact that you're right make you think I'm going to agree."

"There isn't a lit fire in twenty miles. Now what's with them?" asked Mia.

"I don't know and I don't want to know. Let's get going," said Picard.

"Aye, captain!" replied Isaac, and saluted perfectly before starting towards the centre in a militaristic sort of march. "Care to suggest a cadence, sir?"

"All right, all right, I know you're the leader. Lead, already."

They did walk for some days, trekking across the barren ground toward a distant glow in the dark sky. The land transformed into terrain -or at least that's what Ivan said, by which he meant that it wasn't quite so flat. Instead, it became exceptionally rocky, like there had once been a mountain range but then an army of Venus Adepts decided to try their hands at landscaping and the whole thing got out of control. It was while they were travelling through a narrow pass among the rocks that the first evidence of life appeared. It appeared in the form of acid.

A screech echoed off the stone walls, and suddenly transformed into a sort of choking gurgle. Footsteps sounded above them, and then the acid fell. Great drops that burned away the stone in a matter of seconds, sinking out of sight and leaving only acrid smoke. The Adepts flung themselves against the pass wall closest to where the acid was coming from, but soon the rain began from the other direction as well. Several drops struck the Adepts, hissing as they dissolved cloth and touched skin.

"_Unleash Flash!_" "_Unleash Granite!_" "_Unleash Shade!_" The three auras flew up as Djinn flew into battle. Drops continued to fall, rolling along the luminous barriers but prevented from touching the Adepts. Isaac screamed as the acid that had slipped by corroded through his armor and started burning. He was joined by most of the others only a moment later.

"Deep breath!" ordered Picard, ignoring the pain. "_Deluge!_" The barrier-dome suddenly filled with rushing water, diluting the acid until it could do no more harm. Unfortunately, the dry soil was only too happy to draw in moisture, and soon they were simply standing in grey mud. Still sore and in pain, Isaac looked up and saw that the rain of acid had simply collected on top of the Djinn's auras, which would be failing at any moment.

"Run for it!" he shouted, and sprinted as well as he could down the pass. The others followed, no longer paralysed by the pain of burning liquid digging into them, and a few seconds later the auras faded away, causing a low torrent of acid to chase the Adepts as they ran.

"You know, it's about time you called us up," Flint commented, gripping Isaac's shoulder with his feet. "Most of us Djinn have practically fallen asleep."

"I thought the world was quieter than usual," Isaac gasped as he ran. "Though you're right. Ivan!"

"Oh yeah. _Unleash Zephyr!_" A Jupiter Djinni flew into being, and winds surrounded them, letting the Adepts move with incredible speed. The hissing flow was left behind them, soon enough, and the path widened into more open ground.

The Adepts slowed for a moment, some looking for the origin of the acid and screeching while the healers -mostly Mia- tried to handle the group's burns. Fortunately, the auras had been fast enough to stop more than the initial downpour, and Picard's flood had stopped the acid from digging too deeply.

"What on Wayard was that?" demanded Garet.

"Under," Sheba corrected him.

"This is so not what I expected to find. Weird Psynergy, okay, but acid rain?!" he continued, gesturing back the way they came.

"Hold still, damn it!" growled Jenna, trying to mend his arm.

"Save it for combat, Jenna," Mia told her, and clasped her hands together. "_Wish Well_." Blue light twinkled around the Adepts and rushed into them, mostly closing the wounds. She would have given it another shot, but at that moment the air was cut in half and Jenna fell to the grey sands.

"Jenna!" shouted Felix and Garet in unison, rushing over to her. Jenna rolled into an upright sprawl and reached for her arm, from which she pulled what appeared to be a silvery-grey point, stained red with blood. Something began to roll into her eye, and Jenna realised that the blade had sliced across her forehead before catching her in the arm.

"Close one," she muttered, wiping a glove across her brow.

"What was that?" demanded Isaac, turning a full circle with his sword on guard.

"Who, I think," Felix reported. "This looks like a dagger to me." The Adepts were silent for a few moments, looking around for a sign of who could have thrown it. Sheba looked closer at the glinting edge. In a quiet voice made all the smaller by the vast silence around them, she pointed out a worrying fact.

"It actually looks like a feather."

The silence deepened, and was then split so piercingly that Isaac though he could see the sound- a bright red line slashing across his vision. A cry rang across the stones, and was joined by more of the same creature. Then they rose from nooks and crevasses, darker shadows against the ever-dark sky.

"What are those?" asked Isaac, warily. The starlight dancing across the multitude of shapes was menacing, and made it hard to guess how many creatures were surrounding them. In the flash as Bane appeared on his shoulder, a few more vague features were lit, mostly sharp or glowing red eyes.

"Oh, no," Bane muttered. "There shouldn't be any of these left. They're called Sorro'wings, ancient monsters of the upper world. Feathers of iron, and all razor sharp. We Djinn have fought them before."

"Any weak points?" asked Felix.

"With iron feathers? Worse than plate mail," Mia muttered.

"Well, metal is a good conductor. Heat and electricity are the only things likely to slow them down much," Corona pointed out, perched on Garet's pack. "But it's probably safer just to run."

"How much longer do you think I can keep them going?" demanded Zephyr.

"He's right," Sleet growled. "We have no choice for the moment."

"What good am I, again?" asked Isaac, a little annoyed.

"You get to say 'Charge'," Bane replied.

Isaac shook his head. "Ivan, Sheba, go for it. Garet, you too. Jenna, I want you to keep a reserve of Psynergy, just in case there's something we don't know about yet. Everyone else, it's time for some manual plucking." He drew the Sol Blade, which shone gold in the darkness, ready to strike. In its light, the Adepts could see the Sorro'wings much better, and wished they couldn't.

The creatures were perhaps six feet tall from ground to head, though the way they stood made it difficult to tell how high they could rear up. Their legs were paw-like, coated in dark grey fur and thickly padded, shaped in a way Isaac had learned to recognise as concealing claws. Big claws. The rest of their eagle-ish bodies were covered in large feathers, all sleek dark silver and looking just as sharp as Bane had said.

Except for the beaks, which were black and cruelly hooked, and the eyes, which glowed like red coals. The Adepts were surrounded by dozens of these flame-eyes, all shifting as they studied the Adepts, moving oddly in the darkness.

The Sorro'wings seemed a little uncertain. Humans were very uncommon underneath the world. And they had experienced some very strange encounters recently with such creatures. So the Adepts had a little bit of a mental edge, though against hunting monsters this is rarely a major advantage.

"Why aren't they doing anything?" asked Ivan.

"They look worried," Mia pointed out. "Well, not so much worried as… pensive."

"Pensive? You have time to remember words like pensive when we're facing down a horde of hawks crossed with mezza lunas?" demanded Garet. The others stared at him. "What?"

"Let's go already!" said Felix tersely -not being much of one for battle cries- and drew Excalibur, spinning it in his usual fashion as he ran towards one of the Sorro'wings.

"We don't know that-" began Isaac, cutting himself off from saying 'there's no peaceful way out', but he knew from experience that Psynergy predators rarely surrounded someone just to look at them. "Very well. Hit it!"

Ivan threw his arms wide, trying to focus Psynergy on as wide an area as possible. "_Destruct Ray!_" Purple lightning stabbed down out of the perfectly clear starry sky, crackling and arcing across the metal-coated raptors. They froze, the current paralysing them as every muscle tensed to the point of pain.

"_Spark Plasma!_" said Sheba, dropping a hail of exploding electron bolts onto another group. They were knocked about, but the battering only seemed to increase their rage. The flock set upon the Adepts furiously, and then there was no time to say anything except the occasional call to Psynergy.

Garet stayed near Jenna, smashing anything that came close, launching Heat Waves whenever he had a spare breath, and feeling rather smug in general about so obviously defending her with all his might. The Sorro'wings' feather armor glowed red as the tremendous heat washed over them, losing their sharp edges and beginning to run together. Still the creatures fought, claws raking across armor and locking against blades.

Sheba's staff was useless against metal coats, and she rather thought it would be reduced to sawdust anyway. As she watched, one of the Sorro'wings flapped and flung a hail of its feather daggers at Isaac, who rolled to the side and managed to pick a couple out of the air with his luminous sword. Not wanting to see anyone ventilated, Sheba focused and called up a Tempest around them- spiralling winds from which electricity crackled and occasionally earthed on one of the beasts.

This wasn't the winning strategy she had hoped for. The next time two of the creatures launched a feather hail, the blades were caught on the wind and sailed around madly, ricocheting off of one target and sailing on to the next.

"Ivan!" called Felix, his long hair whipping into his face. "Can't you -pth- do something about this storm? Blh!" He then screamed as one of the razors found an unlucky space under his arm and stuck deeply into his side.

"It's out of control! There's too much power for me to fight it down!" replied Ivan, ducking under a whistling feather. Sheba realised with sudden, fearful regret that she had tried too hard. The storm was even beyond her control now, and would soon enough slice them all apart. She caught sight of Isaac's face, two red lines across it, and wondered how much of her fault they were.

_Well, there's always the extreme way. And the atmosphere must be thinner down here…_ "Everyone exhale and drop!" she shouted, focusing whatever Jupiter Psynergy she could.

"Seem to be doing rather a lot of breath stuff today," Jenna commented as Garet fell beside her, and they both breathed out as much as possible. When she saw that they were all down -it only took a couple of seconds- Sheba released the power she had gathered into the air around them.

And pushed it away.

In a silent dome around the Adepts, containing most of the Sorro'wings as well, the air was reduced to vacuum, and the knife-feathers flew outwards, no longer riding the gusts. Well, mostly outwards. One caught Sheba in the shoulder and simply fell to the ground, as she had forgotten to follow her own advice, but the rest were propelled far away.

As though she were taking the deepest breath of her life, Sheba drew the air back in, and was startled by the sudden return of sound, as it was almost entirely made up of screeching Sorro'wings. The beasts, deeply shaken by this strange assault, fell into a deeper rage, barely thinking as they fell back into combat.

Mia and Picard found themselves back to back, trying to fend the beasts off with staff and sword. Smashing one away, Picard said to her, "A mean plan just occurred to me."

"I'll take anything!" she replied, performing a deft spin and jab.

"Metal contracts when it gets really cold."

"Ooh. That's mean."

"Get ready. _Deluge!_" shouted Picard, and a torrent of water exploded from his upraised hand.

"I didn't mean stop warning us!" cried Jenna as the wave rolled over her.

"_Glacier!_" Mia's quick following Psynergy merged with Picard's easily, transforming the rush of water into a frigid bath. And when it had overtaken most of the Sorro'wings, she intensified the power, freezing the water in place. From a distance the whole thing might have looked like modern art, with all the crests and ripples frozen in place.

A moment later, though, Jenna melt-broke her way out -destroying the symmetry- Garet gasping as he followed, and they set about freeing the others as fast as possible. Isaac, who had been caught couple of feet in the air, fell straight to the ground when he was thawed out.

"I take it back," he said, breathing heavily. "Some last-minute plans _should_ be run past me."

"If I were you, I'd take what I could get. Let's see those cuts," said Mia, holding his head firmly by the chin. When he struggled, she twisted around, kissed him quickly, and went back to cleaning the gash. A look of stunned peace replaced Isaac's expression, and he stared straight ahead blankly.

Sure that she could do no more to disinfect, Mia whispered "Ply" and sealed the cuts. Turning back to the others, she saw Picard giving her a weird look. "It shuts him up most of the time," she explained. The look didn't go away. "Oh, go heal someone!"

An ominous cracking came from behind them, and a Sorro'wing's head broke free, thrashing and shrieking. It began chipping furiously at the ice with a fervour that was somehow unsettling.

"I think we should run _now_," said Felix.

"_Unleash Zephyr!_"

The Adepts sprinted away again across the grey wasteland, skin smeared and clothes stained with blood and dark mud, but still alive. Isaac was just considering their most recent lucky escape from death when a worrying thought occurred to him.

"None of those things spat acid at us," he stated woodenly. No one looked back, being too busy running at high speeds, but Sheba thought she saw a tiny falter in most of the Adepts' steps. The same fact had just occurred to her, and she didn't like it.

"Any other little monstrosities you didn't mention to us, Bane?" asked Felix.

"Not that I know-" the Djinni began.

"Yes," said Luff, hanging onto Ivan's staff like a parrot on a perch. "The Drenmar."

"Acid?" asked Picard, coming up beside Ivan.

"Lots," Luff replied.

"Joyous," Garet muttered, trudging at near-mach speed. "Can we outrun them?"

"How long do you expect me to keep this up?" demanded Zephyr.

"That's assuming we're being chased," Mia pointed out.

"Or," said Sheba, wishing she were wrong, "we could run right into some more." Zephyr's blessing of speed stopped almost immediately, and the Adepts slowed after only a few seconds, coming to a halt in the midst of a plain that was, in an unexpected burst of creativity, grey and dusty. A bright light was apparent not too far away, now that they had left the broken mountains, at least telling them that the Sol Lighthouse was close.

"I bet we could make it," said Jenna.

"We've been beaten up enough today," Felix stated. "If we run into some other sort of freakish thing on the way, we probably won't make it. And no offence, but the fewer times Isaac has to cast Revive in his lifetime, the better."

"I actually haven't managed it for some time," said Isaac quietly.

"So what else do we do? It can't be more than a couple more miles to Sol Lighthouse. You can see the glow in the sky as well as I can," Jenna returned. "Let Zephyr recharge, we'll see to what wounds we can, and then we make a dash for it."

"This isn't the time for the Charge of the Sol Brigade!" snapped Felix.

"No jokes, thanks," Picard muttered.

"So what _do_ we do?" she demanded. "What's your solution? Wait out here where we can be attacked any minute-"

"Don't say that," Mia groaned, and barely before she spoke the words, a splatter of green liquid flew past her, hissing as it dissolved the dust. The Adepts turned to see four of the creatures called Drenmar glaring at them.

"I thought they were smaller than that," Luff commented with the calm of the immortal.

The Drenmar were only two or three feet tall from ground to head, but likely five long, not counting the tail, which was flattish and serrated at the edges. The rest of the body was a mottled green, grey, and brown mixture of colours that didn't do much to improve their lumpy, orc-skinned wolf shape. They had short, unpleasant horns at their knees and back of the head, and reptilian face.

Altogether unpleasant-looking to begin with, there was one more feature that Sheba found exceptionally unnerving. In the creatures' backs, just behind the shoulder blades, there was another opening, very mouthlike and edged with things that might not have been teeth, but then again might have. In any case, the same greenish liquid was oozing out the corner as had burned them earlier, and Sheba's skin crawled at the very sight of it.

"Those, I take it, are Drenmar," said Ivan, flatly.

"Is it likely to get any worse? Around that last mountain right there and we should be home free. Come on," said Jenna.

"She's right," Mia seconded. "Suppression fire- Picard and I can handle that. Then we run."

"Zephyr's still weak," Ivan reported.

"Then we use muscle power. Go!" shouted Isaac.

"_Ice Missile!_" called Mia, and from her hands more than a dozen shards of ice exploded in a cloud of frost, slicing back through the air before turning toward the Drenmar and launching themselves forward. This gave the creatures pause for a moment, halting their progress as cold lances fell upon them, but they quickly found that a burst of acid melted through very quickly.

The Adepts had taken their momentary advantage and were already trying to speed away across the barren plain. The Drenmar, unfortunately, quickly showed that they surpassed most topside beasts for foot speed, and began to catch up at an alarming rate.

"They're coming up on our left!" shouted Ivan; being a Jupiter Adept he rarely had to worry about running out of breath.

"Oh, great," said Sheba. "They're smart."

"What do you mean?" asked Ivan, for which the less breath-advantaged Adepts thanked him.

"We need to go right unless we want to try going through that rocky pass between us and Sol Lighthouse," said Sheba, and she seemed to think this explained it all. Ivan groaned as he understood, but noticed the confusion on other faces.

"Why is that a problem?" he asked, his voice clearly showing his distaste for asking questions to which he knew the answers, even for someone else's sake.

"We want to go right, they know that, and they're forcing us right. So they're trying to drive us into more Drenmar, while we think all along that we're just lucky," said Sheba. A burst of acid hissed as it splashed down beside Mia, accentuating what could be their near future.

"More acid-spitters?" repeated Isaac. "We take the rocks."

"They - might - be," gasped Picard, and thinking at the same time, _Damn these heavy boots_, "smarter - than - that." Unfortunately, he didn't have the time or breath to explain further before they were already climbing the rough slope. Especially not after he cast Dynamite Ice, causing a frigid explosion as the Drenmar started up the rise themselves.

In proper too-late fashion, Isaac paused for a moment at the top of the first rise and looked at Picard quizzically. "What do you mean, 'smarter than that'?"

"Well," said Picard, taking deep breaths and bent over slightly, "they could always make us think we're going the way they don't want us to, so that we actually run intentionally into difficult terrain where they're waiting to ambush us."

There was a moment of near-silence, broken by another volley of Ice Missiles at the scrambling Drenmar. "I wish you wouldn't suggest things like that," Garet commented. Then the hissing that had been just on the edge of their hearing intensified, and the ledge broke away, its support dissolved.

They landed in a rocky crevasse, perhaps twenty feet deep, and surrounded by a few dozen Drenmar. A series of strange syllables came from Picard of the type the Adepts had come to recognise as profanity in Old Lemurian.

"I wish I weren't so often right about things like that," he said, in his accented-yet-normal speech.

"I don't think this is going to go well," Mia commented.

"No!" screamed Sheba. She had caused enough trouble today, she wouldn't let anyone die because of her now. "_Spark Plasma! Blue Bolt!_" Shocking explosions and blazing lightning rained down on the Drenmar, and the Adepts had developed sufficient battle sense over time to see an opening when they had one. They ran, ignoring their exhaustion.

"There are still more!" called Ivan in disbelief and anger. "What does it take to clear a path underneath this blasted world?"

"Ready, sister?" asked Felix.

"Ready, brother," Jenna replied, putting a Mars Djinni on standby.

"_Earth and Fire Power Rise! Felix and Jenna summon Zagan!_" The creature appeared in a flare of Psynergy, three times the height of any human and mostly equestrian, the spirit of Zagan charged forward ahead of the Adepts and swung its hammer-axe, smiting the Drenmar to either side. The Adepts ploughed on through, shrugging off drops of acid and placing all their strength on making it to the Lighthouse.

They came through the rocks alive and… well, alive was good. The great tower of Sol Lighthouse stood before them, unscathed by time and looking very inviting as a place to get away from acid-spitting monsters. The ground sloped downward, rough and stony.

"Locusts. Real good," said Sheba. It was a Lalivero phrase, and she had never told any of them what it meant. "Picard!"

"I get it. This is going to sting…" he muttered.

"_Wind and Water Power Rise! Sheba and Picard summon Moloch!_" The ancient beast appeared behind the Adepts and released a massive blizzard in one vast breath, freezing over the slope in an inch of ice. Isaac cast Stone Spire and leapt onto one of the spikes, sliding easily toward the Lighthouse. The others caught on quickly, and soon they were all racing to safety.

"All clear?" asked Garet, who was latched onto the spire with a death grip and couldn't see behind them. Ivan, who was riding his standing up, turned around.

"They're long gone," said Ivan, relieved.

"Psyphon!" shouted Picard in warning, but there was nothing they could do. The defensive field around the Lighthouse was unavoidable, and one the Lemurians were quite familiar with. It sparkled slightly, especially around the Adepts, whose stores of Psynergy were completely drained as they passed through.

"What was that?" demanded Jenna when they had slid to a stop.

"No time!" said Picard, and rushed the Adepts inside. The Drenmar skidded to a halt at the field's edge, but were still within firing range. The door of the Lighthouse, both newly created and as old as the Spirits, slid closed after them, just barely missing Isaac's scarf. The acid ran off its design easily and ineffectually, repelled in a way that said 'We're closed now, and we don't intend to open for a very long time'. The Adepts' journey was over. Their quest was beginning.

****

[Author's Notes] Usual lateness apology. Why bother? You know the drill. Unrealistic promises about how soon the next one will be, thanking and praising of the muse, that sort of thing. Really. Things get exciting next chapter, and a few mysteries will be both explained and deepened (I _have_ learned something from you.) Reviews, anyone? Please? Or Kaede will smite you, I understand.


	4. Twins And Twilight

****

Shining In The Darkness

A Tale of Sol and Luna

Chapter Four: Twins And Twilight

The corridor was completely dark, lacking even the light to accentuate the shadows. It was as though the Adepts had simply been robbed of sight, though given the options they might have considered this getting off easy. Isaac breathed deeply as he leaned against the smooth metal of the door, hoping they weren't trapped.

"Ow!"

"Was that your foot?"

"That was my neck!"

"Was _that_ someone's foot?"

"I wish!" said Picard, and his voice sounded pressed somehow.

"This is ridiculous," said Jenna, somewhere in the dark. "Flare!" Nothing happened, except for a slight gasp elicited from Picard. "What the…" Jenna shook her head. "Flare!" Still not even a spark. There was the sound of breath being drawn in laboriously.

"_Get off me, damn it!_" shouted Picard. There was a sort of confusing stamping as everyone tried to get away from the enraged mariner. After a few seconds, Picard continued. "There's a Psyphon field up around the Lighthouse. It's an old Lemurian defence. Anyone who passes through a Psyphon has all their stored Psynergy torn away. We'll have to start recharging from nothing."

"Oh."

"What do we do, then? Wait?"

"I wouldn't mind a bit of healing, myself."

"If it were an option."

"What, we didn't bring any nuts or herbs or anything?"

"Not any that survived the acid."

"What about the Psy Crystals?"

"I wouldn't touch those if I were you. They're supposed to have a charge of Psynergy, and if it's used, they vanish. But going through a Psyphon and being drained, weird stuff happens," Picard warned them.

"How so?"

"Imagine your brain being sucked out your ankles."

"Ooh."

"And that's just what it would _feel_ like. You don't want to know what would actually happen. You see, they'll try to draw Psynergy from you to regain their charge, but you don't have any either-"

"Please stop."

There was a brief silence while everyone considered what it would feel like to have your brain sucked out through your ankles.

"Let's find our way in, then."

"Which way is that?"

"Well, there's a door in one direction and walls on either side, so I'd say that way."

"Which way?"

"The way I'm point- oh, right."

"We could hold hands to stay together."

"I'd prefer it if Garet and Isaac stayed coherent."

"We could keep the four of them at opposite ends."

"We could stop making childish jokes, too."

"You have no sense of humour."

There was a sound like a match being lit, and a light in their midst, a few feet off the floor. It was simply a transparent glowing sphere, shining a soft pale light like a candle on them all.

"_You could also follow me. That would likely be the best choice._"

The Adepts looked at each other, just for the novelty of it. "Sounds reasonable," said Garet. This drew a few more complicated looks, some of which were perfect example of expressions translating directly into words, like 'Are you out of your mind?' "Well," he continued defensively, "it's not like we've ever met something else that looked like this and was evil. Besides, this is the sort of thing that's supposed to happen. Right when the heroes are doomed, they're rescued by some benevolent force. This is what I expected when we left to go get the Elemental Stars in the first place."

"I don't know. With a little light, this is sort of cosy," said Isaac. He looked at Mia. She looked back at him. He grinned. The temperature dipped noticeably.

"_I wasn't suggesting that I could rescue you. But we might be able to help you rescue yourselves._"

"Now it's getting mystic," said Jenna.

"_Staying here, however, you will certainly not survive. The Lighthouse has many defenders, and you will not be able to defeat them as you are._"

"All those who say we follow the cute little willowisp, don't take the time to talk," Felix ordered them.

"_I will take you to my compatriots, and we shall see what we can do. Step softly, and do not speak unless it is absolutely necessary._" Quietly, the Adepts rose to their sore feet and started down the hall, shrugging off exhaustion and the tingling pain of residual acid. The light danced through the air ahead of them, casting strange shadows. The walls appeared to be covered with murals, carved and shaped to perfect smoothness.

"Is it far?" asked Mia, who found the loss of her healing power unnerving.

"_Not so much for one like me. For you who are slaves to gravity, perhaps longer._"

"I think we were just collectively zinged," Ivan commented.

"Us and the rest of the species. Not to mention most animals," Picard added.

"_My memory of the paths within this Lighthouse is imperfect. Come through here and we shall see what there is to be seen._"

The light vanished through what seemed a solid wall, but before any of the Adepts could say anything it rose up, opening a way into a much larger and brighter room. They stepped through, cringing in the unexpected light and yet glad to throw off the shadows, and were amazed. After seeing four other Lighthouses and a number of temples, this was a considerable achievement.

The chamber was circular and quite wide at its base, likely more than a hundred yards across, but half a dozen times that in height, stretching upward until the top was barely noticeable. Everything was a shade of gold or silver, and a soft gold light shone from everywhere. The tower had a warm feeling- not of heat, but of safety and power beyond that of any small human.

Ledges circled around the walls, connected by stairs. Around the walls at each level doors opened off the ledges, entrances to the hundreds of chambers between the central well and the outer walls. In the middle of the chamber, a long spire extended from the very top, reaching down to only fifty or so feet from the smooth yellow marble of the floor. At the end of the tapering spire, a bright golden light glowed like a star, but cast no shadows.

Picard fell to a knee and crossed his arms over his chest, bowing his head, closing his eyes, and saying:

"_Lift your eyes and see the glory_

Where the circle of life is drawn

See the never-ending story

Come with me to the Gates of Dawn."

"_Lemurian, there is more to you than I had first guessed,_" the light commented. "_Few know the power that music has within this place._" Picard stood again, looking sort of sheepish.

"I actually don't know what you mean. It's just a sort of old Lemurian… ritualish thing," he explained. He noticed the look Mia was giving him. "All right, I surrender! There's no need to turn my own looks against me." She did not relent. "I'm sorry already!"

"What's he talking about?" asked Isaac, and neither of them could keep from laughing. They stopped quite quickly when a strong voice -feminine, but forceful, like a slap with a gauntlet ringing melodically on your jaw- echoed off the walls from somewhere up above.

"Laughter? I'm getting used to ancient chattering, but laughter I find most suspicious," the voice commented. "Oh, how cute. Armor and everything. Come down here and take a look at the adventurers, brother. They're most amusing."

A bolt, not unlike lightning but far sleeker and spikier -not to mention pure black edged with darkest purple- struck the floor and shattered. From the Psynergy blast a figure formed, a young woman only a year or two younger than Isaac, who walked towards them with a liquid, lazy pace. She was dressed in every colour of the rainbow, but each such a dark shade that it looked like black.

Nearby, a sort of sparkling mist flew down to floor level and coalesced into a boy. Likely the same age as the girl, but with a softer face that suggested innocence. On the other hand, he wore an expression of boredom and arrogance underneath his crown of pale blonde hair. The boy walked up beside the girl, and his white robe shimmered in multicolours as it moved in the light, like a soap bubble.

"Them," said the boy, apparently called Orian, in a tone that said he not only knew who the Adepts were, but was not surprised to see them standing there in the hall of Sol Lighthouse.

"They're so cute," the girl commented again. "Burned and melted plates, drenched from head to toe, bleeding, bruised, and battered. And you're supposed to look like heroes?"

The Adepts noticed for the first time how ragged they appeared. Garet in particular studied them closely, then looked back at the girl. "What would you expect heroes to look like? Any armor that can take a polish probably isn't being used right."

"He has a certain persuasiveness to his argument," Orian admitted.

"Shut up, brother," she suggested sweetly.

"Whose tower are we in, Lycoris?" demanded Orian.

"Who got us in here?" she returned.

"How'd you do that, anyway?" asked Ivan.

"Oh, please. Sol Psynergy? Nothing to an Adept of the Moon, a mistress of Luna." Lycoris was quite pleased with the reaction she got. Dead, shocked silence from all of the Adepts except Picard, who simply looked disturbed, maybe even a little sickened. "What's wrong, Lemurian? You don't look well. Oh, of course. Your people don't like the idea of united Psynergy much, do you?"

"Not in one person," Picard replied. He seemed to be pushing something down, internally. "But I'm willing to be convinced otherwise. My name is Picard." He held out a hand.

"Don't call him Piers," Garet whispered loudly.

"If you don't mind, I'd prefer not to touch any of you," Lycoris replied. Picard looked down at his gloved hand, which was stickily stained burgundy with monster blood and dilute acid.

"I can understand that," he replied graciously.

"I think you misunderstood," Lycoris began.

"There's no need to be antagonising," Orian said, cutting her off.

"Oh, please. You're not going to say we should be pleasant to them as we're launching them into the depths of space," his sister shot back.

"What?" asked Mia, deadpan.

"Stop it, Lycoris. We can send them off peacefully enough."

"They'll come back."

"That's certainly true," Jenna added.

"Even the ditz agrees," said Lycoris, ignoring Jenna's exhalation of disapproval.

"She makes enemies like she's running out of time," Felix muttered to Isaac.

"They will get in the way," Lycoris continued.

"Our power far outweighs theirs," Orian returned. "Especially in this place. We can handle this without violence." Lycoris scoffed at her brother's naivete.

"Orian, you know the story. You know what happened to those of the Mars Clan who sought Alchemy. They're heroes. We remove them now or risk it all."

"What could the likes of us lose to them?"

"They could find a way. Even at the cost of their own lives, they could very well find a way to stop us, keep the Star from us forever. Heroes do that sort of thing, you know."

"I don't think I like being left out of this sort of conversation," said Ivan. "Doom and so forth."

Orian stared at the soft golden light glinting off the tiles of the floor. The others found their gazes drawn downwards as well, and they noticed that they could all be seen in perfect reflection.

"Now I'm really glad I left the battle skirt at home," Jenna whispered.

"Yes," Orian said at last. "Yes, I suppose you're right, in the end. At least let us be peaceful about it." Psynergy began to spark and flare in the air around them as a grin appeared on Lycoris' face. She raised a hand and the same sort of black lightning crackled out, wrapping around Isaac. Psynergy wracked him as the bolt lifted him off the ground. It trailed back to Lycoris' hand like a whip, and with a flick of her wrist she flung him across the chamber.

The others were armed before he was even off the ground, charging before he landed, and flying backwards in a heap as they were blasted with Sol Psynergy, just as Isaac hit the wall. Orian showed his distaste for the assault, but charged again for another Wracking Wave.

"Don't bother with it," said Lycoris as Isaac stood, leaning against the wall, trying to raise his sword in defence. Orian blasted the other Adepts again. "I won't enjoy this -well, not much- but there's no reason to make it harder on yourself. You can't stop Luna Psynergy. It is the void of all things. Your power will fall into its depths and never touch me."

"_Not on this day, you abomination,_" declared the light point, appearing again, and there was a tone to its voice that said this was how the world was to be. The words were not mere words, they were a description of the future. It flew between Lycoris and Isaac, then unleashed a wide ray of light that blasted the girl off her feet. A swarm of the fairy lights seemed to be pestering Orian, and the Adepts took the chance to escape gratefully.

"_This way,_" said the lead light again, and even if the Adepts had wanted to, they couldn't have disobeyed. It darted ahead of them, leading up the stairs at the chamber's edge. By the time Lycoris was standing, they had reached the second level, entered through one of the doors, and were chasing the fairy lights through a maze of corridors and chambers. They passed wondrous murals and treasures of which the like had never been seen on the top of the world, but the rush of fleeing for their lives meant that the Adepts didn't really notice.

In the end, they came to a halt in a room that was, like most of the others, floored and walled in stones of various golden shades. At the back was a font filled with perfectly clear water, overflowing into a pool built into the floor. And covering the walls around them, raised murals of the spirits that so often aided the Adepts.

"That was damn close," gasped Garet, slumped against the wall.

"I can't believe we took that long to do anything," said Felix.

"I'm so exhausted," Mia added. "Everything is like a dream. I can barely think straight." There was a splash, and the Adepts turned as one to see Picard, kneeling by the pool, who had leaned over and submerged his entire torso in the cool water.

"That was awful. She barely touched me, but I could feel the power she had. Lycoris could probably blow away all of Vale if she wanted to," said Isaac, unable to believe that so much power could dwell in one young, innocent looking -if malicious- girl.

"So what can we do?" asked Jenna.

"I don't know," said Ivan, who had taken the brunt of Orian's attack. "Even if we rested enough to be at full strength-"

"_There is no time to rest, I am afraid,_" said the light. "_But we shall give to you of our strength, that you may be true defenders of this Lighthouse._" With that, the cloud of lights dove spiralling into the fountain. In an explosion of diamond drops, glowing shapes rose out of the fountain and gathered before the Adepts. Picard rose from the depths, dripping quite a lot, in time to see the aura fade and the beings' shapes revealed.

They were Djinn.

Not like any kind they had seen before. These stood upright, though they had no arms, and feathery wings hung at their backs. Long trailing appendages -either horns or ears- curved gently from the backs of their heads, like ornamentation on war helmets. Mostly, they were yellow-gold, except for whiteness all up the front and the deep black of their eyes.

"We are Sol Djinn," said the one who apparently lead them. "We number nine, half the count of the individual elements. We are protectors of this Lighthouse, keepers of the Sol Star."

"Harmony!" shouted Bane, rising from Isaac's spirit into the material world. "I thought…"

"Hello, Bane," said the Sol Djinni. "You weren't meant to think I was real, I'm afraid. The Elemental Spirits didn't want even the Djinn to know of my existence. Though as the others were born, I wondered if you might sense us anyway."

"Luff! Torch! Dew!" shouted Bane. "Come out here and greet the only person you should bow to more than me!" At his call, the senior Djinn of each element appeared from the rest of the first Adept heroes, staring in surprise at the Sol Djinn.

"I remember you too… but I thought that was a dream… drifting in firmament…" said Luff.

Torch nodded enthusiastically. "When we were the only Djinn - before the others were born, of course," she explained to the confused Adepts. "There was a fifth - oh, she was - well, I suppose _is_ - so much fun - but we thought it was just a dream - after she vanished, you know - I suppose the Spirits must have sent her here."

"It must have been awful being alone for so long," said Bane.

"You would know better. Hanging around in the depths of Crossbone Isle for a few centuries?" asked Harmony. "I never took you for the stupid-brave type. Besides, the other Sol Djinn were born soon after." The Adepts nodded false-knowingly at this, having decided that the phenomenon of Djinn birth, while useful at times, was not something they wanted any more information on.

"And now you're being called on to guard at last," said Isaac. "We'll help, of course."

"Not quite. You'll do the guarding, and we'll help you," Harmony corrected him. "Hold on. This will be a rush." She nodded, and the other Sol Djinn stepped forward.

"_Halo allies with Isaac!_"

"_Seraph allies with Garet!_"

"_Oracle allies with Ivan!_"

"_Saviour allies with Mia!_"

"_Aeon allies with Felix!_"

"_Justice allies with Jenna!_"

"_Infinity allies with Sheba!_"

"_Guardian allies with Picard!_"

The Adepts nearly did rock off their feet as great strength returned to them. The Sol Djinn, having absorbed healing power from the waters of the font, immediately refreshed their new allies upon setting themselves as channels of power.

Isaac carefully searched his mind for any surprising information, since Psynergy tended to imbed itself in the subconscious, so deep that you didn't always realise it when you mastered a new type of it. There was something even more fundamentally different now, though. Of course, the addition of a new kind of Djinni gave them all new classes. How so, he wasn't sure, but he _was_ certain they'd find out soon enough.

"Not joining us, Harmony?" asked Jenna.

"I'm… not exactly a normal Djinni. If you do need me in these battles, don't worry, I'll be there. But I'm sure you won't have any problems with the sentinels."

"The wh- oh, why bother asking," muttered Felix. "You're going to tell us that there are other guardian monsters in the Lighthouse and that they won't be able to tell that we're on their side, am I right?"

"He's a sharp one," Echo commented, sitting at Felix's feet

"A bit depressing, though," said Aeon, settling into the Venus Adept's mind.

"You're very nearly right. The simple reality is that above all else, we must keep those two from getting the Sol Star," Harmony stated. "And their path is currently very clear."

"Oh, can we? Can we please?" yelped Halo, dancing from foot to foot. "Oh, just this once, we won't get another chance for millennia, I know it!"

"What's this little psycho talking about?" asked Isaac.

"The labyrinth defences," Harmony replied. "You saw the central chamber, which contains the Lighthouse Well. And you saw how easy it is to reach the top. We can fix that, but it will make things more difficult for the rest of you as well."

"How _much_ harder for them and for us?" asked Ivan

"Lots and significantly, respectively," said Guardian, helpfully.

"You eight, of course, are used to such challenges. My hope is that Orian and Lycoris' power won't be more useful than your knowledge and experience," Harmony explained.

"I say we do it. We know how these things go, we have the Djinn with us, and I'll be damned if we let them get the Star after all of this," Mia stated. No one dared disagree, both because she was right and because they knew not to mess with Mia when she went into Frost Queen mode.

"Okay. Nice to have a plan again. How's it go?" asked Jenna.

****

[Author's Notes] Not quite a cliffhanger, so no complaints. Actually, complaints would require reviews (of which I'm getting very few, annoyingly) so I take that back. Review anything and everything, all will be highly appreciated. Credit to the muse, as always, and for anyone who's wondering, Echo is the first Venus Djinn from Lost Age, more of whom will be featured in coming chapters. That's it for now, I suppose, so off you go to review! Hopefully!


	5. Down To The Depths

****

Shining In The Darkness

A Tale of Sol and Luna

Chapter Five: Down To The Depths

"If we're going to activate the defences, we'll have to send at least one person down to the Depths," said Harmony, who fit quite well into the role of confident strategist.

"The Depths?" queried Jenna.

"It sounds more dramatic than basement," Justice explained. "This _is_ the Sol Lighthouse."

"I think we won't want to send anyone on their own. If Orian and Lycoris really think we're a threat, they're likely to be hunting for us before heading for the Star," Isaac commented.

"Unless they think they can just beat us there and take us out once they have the power," Felix added.

"Orian doesn't seem interested in killing us," said Picard. "That is probably something we can use to our advantage. But it also means that Lycoris, if she is as vicious as I think she is, will work to convince him that we have to be removed first."

"The wench is twisted," Garet agreed.

"And you think I'm going to ignore that sort of remark?" asked Jenna.

"You're different. I-" began Garet.

"Topic at hand, people," Ivan reminded them.

"If we have to go to the Depths first, then get up through the labyrinth to reach the Aerie, that's a long way, and slow going. We'll have to make good time to beat them there," said Mia.

"Not if four of us go down and four go up. We can get a head start, and then slow them down at the top while the others catch up. Also, we'll have four fresh Adepts while Orian and Lycoris will have been fighting for a some time," suggested Picard.

"I'm really quite impressed," said Harmony to Bane. "I say one thing and they're off scheming."

"Planning. Heroes plan. Villains scheme," said Dew. "And brigands plot, if you want to know."

"I'm afraid I've forgotten much of the terminology over the last few thousand years. It's been a while since I encountered any villains," she pointed out.

"Those were good times," Bane mumbled reflectively.

"Hey, these are the best times we've had in a while," said Core, glancing back at Jenna. "And don't say anything about being around longer than me, I was born long before this whole quest began."

"Bah. A few centuries? Maybe a millennium?" muttered Bane. "Anklebiters."

"We had some fun of our own, a long time ago," said Harmony to Core. "Maybe I'll tell you sometime." The Djinn turned back to watch the humans that they now depended on.

"Six to the top," Felix insisted. "They'll be taking the dangerous route."

"And leave just two to make it all the way from bottom to top?" asked Ivan incredulously.

"He has a point," Sheba returned. "The fewer of us go up, the worse their chances of lasting at all."

"Maybe all of them are depressing," Infinity suggested to Aeon, who simply shook his head.

"But not one," Mia said. "Six and two is the least safe way this side of suicide. No one gets to go out fighting, no matter how glorious it could be."

"We already cured Felix of that one," said Jenna, grinning.

"I don't want him getting ideas into his head. Picard, Jenna, you two will go into the Depths and do whatever you have to. Everyone else, we go up," said Isaac, sliding into his role as leader very comfortably. "Harmony, are you coming?"

"No, I have other tasks at hand. The Sol Djinn are quite capable of leading you, don't worry." With that, Harmony dove into the font again, and a moment later a light shot through the ceiling. The Adepts looked at each other, but Harmony had one last suggestion for them. "**GO!**" They went.

"Come on," said Justice, hovering ahead of Jenna and Picard as they dashed out of the room. "The path down starts a bit higher up, but with the power you guys have now, I think I have a shortcut."

"That's a good point. I feel a lot stronger now. Exactly how did you power us up?" asked Picard. Guardian, who was cruising along at the significant altitude that was head-height for Picard, laughed like a knight riding to joust.

"Indeed, mighty Picard! All of you have reached new classes now that you are allied with us, the Djinni of Sol!" said Guardian, swooping dramatically.

"You'll get used to it," said Justice, but she added in a low tone, "or kill him first."

"So? Don't keep us in suspense," Picard said.

"You, o warrior of the oceans, with my aid are now of the Herald class. Your range of Psynergy has been expanded, and you may call upon me at any time to nullify the casting of your foes," Guardian proclaimed.

"And you?" asked Jenna, looking at Justice. 

She hovered in a doorway, looking back and forth between the possible directions. "Me? I've raised you to Valkyrie class. And as for unleashes… Wait, here we are." Justice had stopped at a blank wall, no different than any of the other rooms that honeycombed inside the Lighthouse's outer walls. "The proper lyrics should give us a nice shortcut. Which of you is the better singer?" asked Justice. Jenna and Picard looked at each other, then at the Djinni.

"Picard," they said in unison.

"Then sing these words will all your spirit," said Justice, and into Picard's mind a song was written.

"_Come on now, you can trust me,_

Come on, open the door,

I know just how you're feeling

I know, I've been there before 

Open the gate up

Open the gate up, hurry,

Open the gate up, hurry,

Do it right now-"

"_Open the gate up, or I'm gonna knock the damn door down!_" shouted Jenna, who had been standing there with growing impatience, waiting for something to happen. As soon as she finished, the yellowish gold of the wall dissolved like sand, leaving a rectangular hole that showed only blackness beyond.

"How did you know how it ended?" asked Justice.

"It ended?" repeated Jenna, a little confused. "Well, there's fate for you."

"Quickly now! Our pace must be great!" said Guardian, and dove into the shadows.

"He's a little out of his mind," Jenna commented.

"After so long so far away from civilisation, you might not hold up so well yourself. And he is a gallant fighter when necessary, with bravery rarely matched," replied Justice.

"But he's way out there. Like insane," Jenna added.

"Most Djinn are. We just never tell anyone," the Sol Djinni replied, and followed Guardian into the darkness. Jenna shook her head, not too surprised that the Sol Djinn were much like all the others.

"That sounded oddly familiar," Picard muttered as he and Jenna stepped through the wall and into the void of shadows. Then they fell for rather a long time.

"They're on their way," said Felix, watching his sister and Picard as they were lead away from the fountain room. "We'd better move fast if we want any sort of head start."

"We could always just hope that the moving walls crush them where they stand," grumbled Garet, who had been severely battered by Orian's Psynergy.

"You're now back by the power of the Sol Djinn and you don't want to take another shot at those two?" demanded Torch. "And you call yourself a Mars Adept."

"I wasn't serious, spark-breath," Garet replied. "Though the idea of no more pain before this ends is an intriguing one, not to mention unique." Torch glared at him, but was cut off by Mia. For whatever reason, the Djinn were always particularly respectful of the healer.

"So let's move. We can probably make it a good distance up before too long, if we put a bit of Psynergy at our feet," Mia said. "Ivan? Garet?"

"Hey, yeah, why didn't you help out outside, anyway?" demanded Ivan, nudging Garet playfully in the ribs. The Mars Adept, who still stood well above Ivan, looked down at him imperiously.

"Because I was helping save our collective skins, while you were flailing away like the Mad Staff Swinger, trying to damage the polish on those nightmare parrots," he growled, but Ivan knew better than to take him seriously. "_Unleash Turbo!_"

"_Unleash Zephyr!_"

The Mars and Jupiter Djinn flared with power again, vastly increasing the speed of all the Adepts. With a sound like silk being dragged across a blade, Isaac fired out of the room, following Halo's directions as he raced through the chambers.

"We're supposed to follow him?" asked Garet.

"Just follow the violet-shifted trail," Sheba muttered as they sprinted after Isaac.

As Sol Lighthouse had never been designed for anything less than very dignified processes -assuming it was designed at all, and not simply coalesced out of the firmament- the fastest way from top to bottom right now was the vast spiral path around the edge of the Outer Well. That, unfortunately, was where they had first encountered Orian and Lycoris.

"Look at it this way," Ivan said to Garet. "They're not going to see anything but a glowing blur."

"Even if that were true, it's not like there are just glowing blurs all over the place. Well, not anymore," Garet said ironically, looking at Seraph.

"Watch yourself, mortal," Seraph muttered. "Just because you're a Titan now doesn't mean you get to mouth off to Sol Djinn." Garet struggled mightily to tell if Seraph was kidding or not, but couldn't.

"Titan?" repeated Sheba. "And what about the rest of us?"

"Do you really want us to list all your powers right now?" asked Infinity, still somewhere inside Sheba's mind. "You're a Prophet now, if you really want to know. And I can help you out by striking all enemies in the area with one heck of a slap that ought to stun them a bit, if you really want to know."

"Some of us do want to know, actually. We're probably heading into a fierce battle against strong enemies. Anything you can tell us is good," said Mia, never one to take nonsense from Djinn.

"No argument from me," Saviour chimed in. "I can place protective Psynergy around any one person you want. The next time they take a fatal strike, I'll step in with some of the strongest healing power you've ever seen. I've tried to use it other times, but it never works unless we're talking life-and-death, I'm afraid."

"And any Djinni who can raise someone to the class of Disciple is no slouch," Aeon added. "Me, I'm stuck with a united elemental attack and this big silent guy. I mean, Crusader is a nice title and all…"

"Aeon, if you're not careful, someone's going to think you like her," Felix warned his Djinni. "In this group, they'll grab anything. Ivan and Sheba have gone through too much already."

"And I suppose if Sheba were at all involved you'd be well aware of it, wouldn't you?" joked Garet.

"I rather resent being left with the responsibilities of your girlfriend," Seraph grumbled, but flapped closer and gave Garet a resounding smack to the back of the head with his wing anyway.

"Don't worry. We're not going to ask you to kiss him when he gets depressed," Ivan assured him.

__

This is certainly an interesting band of chosen defenders, Halo commented to Isaac, silently.

__

None better, the Venus Adept agreed.

__

But I do wonder about the way they act. Surely you would expect more discipline from such important warriors?

Not at all, Isaac replied. _They have to be like this just to stay normal. Human, if you'll excuse my use of the word. Otherwise we'd probably be racing to take the Sol Star before Lycoris and Orian._

Human, Halo repeated, and laughed. _Well, you make a good point. It's fun to watch, too._

Makes a long journey interesting, I can tell you, said Isaac. The Adepts continued to joke as they ran up the spiral path, steadily marching, the powers of Mars and Jupiter fuelling their pace. They would likely have made it all the way to the top before Picard and Jenna even activated the Lighthouse's defences if they had not forgotten a crucial detail.

With a flicker of light, Orian and Lycoris appeared in front of them.

"Oh. Right. Warp Psynergy," said Mia, distastefully. Orian waved a hand, nullifying the Mars and Jupiter Djinn's speed boosts.

"We so should have remembered that," Sheba added.

"Do we really need all this talking?" asked Lycoris, producing the Psynergy whip again. "If it's a problem I could always silence one of you for good. That tends to grab attention."

"I've heard better threats," Felix commented.

"Saturos. Now he was always one for a good menacing," Ivan pointed out.

"Karst was never unprepared when it came to evil villain talk either," Sheba said.

"Orian, I do believe they're taunting us," Lycoris said, narrowing her eyes.

"Oh, very well. Just don't prolong it," said Orian, relenting. His hands emerged from the folds of his perfect robe and a sudden updraft blew his hair out of his eyes, which had gone wild with crackling power. "_Blinding Burn!_" The air grew thick with heat as light grew all around the Adepts, shining harshly so that it was painful to look at anything. Images began to melt into pale blurs and even sound began to sublimate. The floor was heating now, heating like a stovetop. The soles of the Adept's boots began to stick, hindering them even as they stumbled.

Garet hit Orian at a run, tackling the Sol Adept to the floor and rolling up again, on guard against retaliation. The Psynergy broke immediately; the world snapped back to normal and the floor was simply cool tile once more. Orian's assault broken, the Adepts followed Garet into battle. Unfortunately, the two strange villains, while not the same sort of warriors as those of the Mars Clan, were still more than capable of holding their own in combat.

Ivan and Sheba's first concerted attack should have left little choice for Lycoris except whether she wanted her legs struck numb or a smash to the temple. Instead, she performed a competition-perfect backflip without ever seeming to push off the ground. The Luna Adept simply rotated three hundred and sixty degrees like she was on an axis, dodging both staves and landing firmly.

Felix came in behind her, readying himself for what he had no choice but to hope would be a killing blow. Instead, there was a whirlwind of dark hair and eyes that glowed now, but nevertheless contained a deeper darkness, and with a snap he fell back, clutching his face.

"_Unleash Sleet!_" At Mia's call, her Mercury Djinn sprang into action, blasting the enemy Adepts with heavy, wet snow. Lycoris, losing her footing on the wet tile, was borne down under the onslaught, but Orian projected a shield moments after the attack began. The Psynergy wall easily deflected Sleet's attack, and with a wave of his arms, he sent it at Mia, crashing it into her before she could leap away.

Even as the wall flew toward Mia, Isaac tried to tell himself she would be fine as he leapt over it, landing and immediately moving in, swinging the Sol Blade up and around. Psynergy flickered again, and another shield formed between Orian and the rushing blade, but the force of the strike still knocked him aside.

Lycoris was up again only moments after Sleet threw her down, picking Ivan up by the neck with one pstrengthened arm and flung him at Garet, stalling the Mars Adept as he tried to catch his friend and put him down without injuring anyone.

Isaac hoped that her attention would be drawn long enough for him to strike, but the powers of Turbo and Zephyr were long gone, while the faint fiery aura around Lycoris suggested that she had no qualms about using such Psynergy boosts herself. She nearly blurred as the second pstrengthening kicked in fully, and the lightning whip snapped again.

Isaac's muscles twitched faster than he knew what had happened, and as he looked at the black crackling cord wrapped around the Sol Blade, he silently praised his reflexes and any of the Elemental Spirits who happened to be listening. Isaac glanced back at Orian, blasting the upright Adepts off their feet. They out numbered these two by a factor of three and were barely holding their own.

"I hate this sort of battle," Isaac muttered, even as he sprinted around Orian, wrapping the Sol Adept in a single coil and then taking a flying leap, right over the rail of the ledge. Far below him, the bottom of the Well Chamber expressed its interest in getting much closer to him very quickly. 

Orian, who had been too focused on casting Psynergy to notice Isaac with more than passing interest, found himself dragged to the edge, into the low wall, and right over, following Isaac down. Lycoris began to slide as well, but her pstrength was considerable, and she ground to a halt, her foot wedged against the rail.

"I think I hate this sort of thing even more," said Isaac, aware of what he was about to do and how little any of the three of them would enjoy it. But Orian was unable to cast a thing while wrapped in concentrated Luna Psynergy, and Lycoris was already busy keeping the whip, the pstrength, and her grip steady. She wouldn't be able to get out either. At least, he hoped not, considering the plan. "_Unleash Ground!_"

Ground released her power onto Isaac, wishing she had a better plan but aware that if this were to have any effect, it had to be done fast. Gravity's pull on Isaac suddenly increased, and not even Lycoris could hold fast against it. The three of them plummeted toward the base of the lighthouse, a fall no person, not even an Adept, could survive.

Jenna and Picard dropped through the darkness uneventfully for a few moments before landing on a sharp slope sideways. They continued nearly falling, but in a wide circle, inside the walls of the Lighthouse, and very slowly the slope curved more gently. By the time they had circled the tower's foundations for the second time, it was horizontal, and Jenna found herself sitting less than elegantly in front of a wide door. On the other side was a corridor with just enough light to see how many shadows there were.

There were a lot.

"Any chances of some extra light?" asked Picard, standing up beside her and trying not to walk in circles. "Sheesh. High winds on high seas aren't that bad."

"I'm not sure light would be such a great idea," said Jenna, with an odd tone in her voice.

"Why?" asked the Lemurian.

"Because the only light I see right now is coming from those spider webs," she managed. Closer inspection showed Picard that she was right. The strands that stretched from wall to wall before coming together in a sticky web were glowing pale blue, and that light glinted off the slick floor and walls.

"Why does every Lighthouse seem to have some place that is so intensely like a sewer?" demanded Picard of no one in particular. He shook the thoughts of what was likely to be out there off and turned to his Sol Djinni. "Guardian, where do we go from here?"

"Straight through the gloom, as is the bravest course!" the Djinni announced. "Let those who would stop us in our quest feel the power of Mercury, Mars, and Sol!"

"You _are_ out of your mind," said Jenna, but she called up Shine anyway, who lit up the hall as well as a torch. Jenna rather wished he didn't. Shine's light didn't flicker like flames, which was probably an advantage, especially since shadows tended to move disconcertingly when that happened. But torches had a sort of life to them, while Shine was… well, _ethereal_. Otherworldly, perhaps. In any case, the dark tunnel wasn't any better when lit.

"Gloomy," Shine commented. "I hope we get through here quickly."

"This is the most dangerous part of Sol Lighthouse," said Justice. "Or rather, it was, until those two up above showed up. Now there's a good chance that we're in the safest part."

"Thank you for not helping," Jenna muttered.

"You're safe, I said."

"And our friends aren't, and we don't know what's happening to them," Picard explained. "So let's move fast and hit this switch, or whatever it is."

"Basically a switch," Justice agreed, bringing her aura of light -which strangely didn't brighten the room at all- in close, and staring at the shadows very intently as they moved in. "There's a command, and it will draw Psynergy from you, but it's really just an Adept's switch."

"Let us not creepy forward as though we fear the monstrosities of the Depths! Let us charge most gallantly forth!" said Guardian, apparently a bit miffed by the Adept's precautions.

"If you don't shut up, we're not going to have much choice except to run and hope we turn this thing on before we get eaten!" whispered Picard, but it had a strange quality that sounded more like yelling.

"And if you want Gallants, talk to Felix and Isaac," Jenna muttered. But she agreed with Guardian's suggestion for speed, and slipped ahead into the corridors. Picard followed as quickly and quietly as his heavy boots would allow.

It was just after the third time they turned in the winding halls that Picard's sense went onto full alert. There was something very much amiss with the situation. The walls, at first rigid and smooth stone, were now growing rough and natural- more like caves than carved passages. That was fair enough, except that the spider webs that clung to the walls were also appearing more thickly, and he heard sounds that _might_ have just been water dripping or flowing through some strange lighthouse plumbing.

"Jenna?" he called to the area of light just up ahead.

"Shh!" hissed a patch of shadow behind and to his right. Jenna stepped away from the wall and let her cloak fall back. "Thank you ever so much for the assistance. Unless that thing thinks Lemurians often talk to walls…"

"What thing?" asked Picard, too bewildered to resist her urgent pulling forward.

"You can't feel it?" asked Jenna, shuddering. Picard's face remained blank. "Spider." She sped up, trying to get back with the Djinn without looking like she was in a hurry. Picard followed, but started to look back. With snakelike speed, Jenna's hand reached out and grabbed him by the chin, forcing him to look straight ahead. "Don't look. It hasn't attacked yet, which only makes sense if it's waiting for something. If it knows we know it's there, we're probably toast."

They moved on, following Justice and Guardian through the tunnels -for they were truly tunnels now, not even resembling anything so civilised as a hallway. And behind them, a strange rustling was sounding out more frequently, as though something was beginning to prize speed over stealth. Picard pulled his headdress up like a hood, certain that not even a Psynergy monster was smart enough to distinguish types of clothing. Keeping it in about the right shape with his free hand, so that it appeared as though he was still looking straight ahead, he raised the corner and looked back into the shadows.

Behind them in the dark, bits of blackness were moving faster than the rest of the blackness. And in the midst of those, there was a patch of not quite-darkness, where Shine's light was reflecting off something. Several things, if Picard's guess was right. Perhaps fifty feet behind them was a spider that could have stood comfortably with a side's worth of legs on either side of his ship.

Picard spent a moment in thought. Mostly thoughts about how quickly he had seen spiders move after smaller insects in the past. He expanded this to the current proportions. They could indeed outrun it, he guessed, but not for more than a minute and a half. Mostly because they currently had a head start and they would run first.

"How much further?" he asked, trying to sound perfectly calm. To any normal person, he succeeded incredibly, though in Picard's personal opinion he might as well have fallen flat on his face.

"Not precisely sure," Justice responded, unaware of the arachnid behind them.

"Make an educated guess," said Jenna, and something in the harmonics of her voice said that this would be a good idea despite any personal feelings in any other direction, _got it?_

"Perhaps another five minutes. Is it important?" asked Justice. Jenna and Picard looked at each other.

"Next turn," Jenna said, barely gulping.

"We both go," agreed Picard, "but don't you stop. I'll tire first; I'll see about slowing it down."

"If he tries accepting a noble death, slap him," Jenna whispered to Guardian, who nodded gravely.

"Turn coming up," Justice told them, and she sounded a bit tense, suggesting that she had caught a random thought about what was behind them.

"I'm ready when you are," Shine muttered.

"I'm ready now," Jenna replied. She turned back and looked straight at the monster, which had gained on them slightly. It halted in its pace and stared back. Jenna took the intense arachnophobia she had been fighting for the past few minutes and shoved it all into her legs. "Run!"

They ran with all the haste a Mercury and Mars Adept could manage, which was a considerable amount. After a second or two of sorting out legs, the spider ran too. Much faster.

"Why on Weyard did I let Garet take Coal with him?!" gasped Jenna, but she realised it wasn't worth the air, and instead pounded on ahead. Shine did his best to grip her shoulders, but it was hard with only feet and a tail. The Djinni slipped, and would likely have been an appetiser if Picard hadn't grabbed him in mid-fall as he passed.

"Thanks," said Shine, relieved.

"I prefer fleeing in good light," Picard breathed. He had just noticed the way the shadows seemed to be moving, and not all of it was due to Shine shaking as Picard's long stride bounced him around. Smaller things were scurrying too, even along the walls and across the cave's ceiling. More spiders, of course. He should have expected that.

A very long leg stabbed down just ahead of Picard, to his side. "Off you go!" he called, flinging Shine ahead. "Jenna! Hurry! I wouldn't count on a big delay here!" Then he turned and faced the massive arachnid. It was better lit than before, and Picard found it hard to complain about Shine's receding glow. On the other hand, fighting in the darkness with something that didn't depend on sight was definitely lacking in the strategy department. Backing away carefully, since it had greatly slowed its pace, Picard fumbled around in the pouches on his belt.

There wasn't anything combustible nearby, and all of Picard's Psynergy was related to water. But facing a Lemurian in a corner, one should keep in mind that they are generally very inventive and particularly good at solving several problems with one move.

The spider was most displeased when the hair on its back burst into flames.

Picard quickly tied his pouch of oil drops closed again and drew his great sword. The smaller beasts around him seemed to be moving on after Jenna, but he thought the big one wasn't likely to ignore him now, even if it might have before.

"A most excellent strike, brave Herald!" said Guardian.

"Get back inside and give me whatever power you have, will you?" snapped Picard, a little harshly. He would apologise later, after the vast monstrosity that was trying to stab him or poison him or drain all his juices out was dead.

Now he darted around the thing, willing to bet that if spiders were bad at anything, it was turning on the spot. Picard slipped between the two last legs on its right side and behind, hoping to get in one good stab into the underside of its abdomen.

"_Unleash Chill!_" shouted Picard, but just as he thrust, the flailing spider released a burst of webbing. "Oh, right," the Mercury Adept said as it weighed him down. Being a sailor for decades, he wasn't particularly familiar with spiders, but remembered quickly.

Fortunately, the webbing was frozen in short order by Chill's power. Picard pushed against the ground and the thick strands shattered, cutting him only slightly as he escaped. The spider was still infuriated by the flames licking across its exoskeleton, but there was only so much hair that a giant arachnid had, and the light was decreasing rather a lot.

Picard tried to do what he could with the remaining light, casting Tundra in the hopes of freezing the beast to the floor. Several legs were caught in the ice, and the spider shrieked even more as it tugged. The last flames on its back burned out, but the sudden darkness that fell on them was punctuated by a burst of light as the spider blew a fireball at its feet. The next patch of darkness was mostly filled with the hissing of steam.

The second flare of brightness was led by a fireball that Picard just managed to dodge, planting his hand on the floor as he flipped out of the way in an impressive show of agility. But even as his feet came down, Picard noticed the sticky texture that his palms were pressed against, and suddenly realised what the spider had done in those seconds of pitch black combat.

The Lemurian's feet planted themselves firmly in the webbing, sticking to it more completely than he wanted to contemplate. Leaving his gloves stuck to it, Picard straightened as well as he could. Then he immediately ducked again as the space just in front of his face filled with spider, followed by flames. Mandibles slashed at his arms in the darkness, and clutching at the wound, trying to call up Ply Psynergy, he dropped his sword. Then the beast cut into his leg and he stumbled, or tried to, falling back and sticking entirely to the floor.

Picard tried to call on a Djinni, any Djinni, something just to delay for the moments he'd need, but the spider's poison was more effective than he expected. Not paralysis, or numbness, just excruciating pain, too much to speak through. He knew at any moment a fourth burst of brightness would come.

It did.

Jenna had sprinted ahead through the halls, driven on by the need to help the others, to save Picard, and to get the hell away from the hordes of spiders after her. Through the unending scrabbling of thousands of legs she heard the echo of Picard calling up Chill against the massive spider, and took heart in knowing he was holding out, at least for now.

"How much further, Justice?" asked Jenna.

"Right here," she reported, turning into what seemed a minor alcove. But when she dove right through the illusion of a wall, Jenna didn't bother questioning it. She emerged into a larger chamber, still roughly walled but with a cluster of pillars around the centre, each with a large fire held it the top. In the very centre was something like an altar, round grey stone with an indigo dome in the middle. And all around the edges, ravenous spiders poured through cracks in the rock.

"No," said Justice, before Jenna could speak, "that isn't natural. What do you expect? Now put your hand on that switch and start casting." Jenna ran towards the centre, stomping a line through the spiders with more enthusiasm than Justice thought was required. A few larger ones dropped from the ceiling onto her head and left shoulder.

"Agh!" she shouted, trying not to slow down as she fought to wrench it off. Its eight clawed legs were adamant about staying where it was, and so without too much worry Jenna called up Psynergy. "_Serpent Fume!_" The large draconian flame rose through Jenna, burning off both hijackers, and dove down behind her, driving off several pursuers. Not willing to leave it at that, she spoke again -"_Cycle Beam!_"- and carved a straight line to the altar.

Jenna sprinted ahead, stretching her hand as far as she could. It slapped down onto the dome, which flickered at its core. The words were there, of course, in her head like all new Psynergy was. "_Deus Ex Machina!_" The indigo turned to blazing gold, filling the room with light as strong as the summer sun.

It shot through the corridors, and Picard was rather startled that he hadn't been roasted, but the flailing spider gave him the time he needed. "_Frost!_" The webs froze and shattered as he lifted himself off the ground. The spider was still hunching as well as an arachnid could, but Picard shrugged off his usually honorable morals in the face of the situation far above. "_Diamond Berg!_" A vast block of ice coalesced out of Mercury Psynergy and fell upon the spider. Picard's sword flared with Psynergy as he picked it up and charged, carving and smashing through the giant frozen beast.

And in mid fall in the Well Chamber, Isaac shut his eyes against the blinding light that flared from the floor below. He, Orian, and Lycoris all halted in the air. The walls began to shake, and everything started shifting.

****

[Author's Notes] Hey, as far as cliffhangers go, there have been worse. See the collected works of Vilya and Company for countless examples. But anyway, here it is, the longest yet chapter of SD, and there are still more to come. Expect Lycoris to earn some serious hatred next chapter, along with other… stuff. We'll just see what the pixies tell me, hmm? Also, expect it with my usual punctuality (ie before summer). And unless you're on your way to perform or receive life-saving surgery, review, wouldja? Look, Vil's even lent me the review javelin.  


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	6. Sword, Soul, and Sky

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Shining In The Darkness

A Tale of Sol and Luna

Chapter Six: Sword, Soul, and Sky

It was hard to say precisely what happened while Isaac floated there, hanging on to Lycoris' whip, with Orian tied in the middle. It was too bright to see most things, and even blurred sights of the walls shifted in ways that made his eyes hurt.

Up top, Ivan and Sheba had the same idea. Or at least, one of them had the idea and the other caught it pretty quickly, since they almost always left their thoughts open to each other. Either way, the results were the same- both had moved to leap off the path with the intention of catching up with Isaac and creating a strong updraft, at the very least slowing him down. 

Only Sheba had succeeded, since she had grabbed Ivan by the collar and yanked him backwards hard enough that he landed flat on the tiles, the wind knocked out of him most ironically. Sheba, on the other hand, had just discovered why she could move but Isaac and the other two weren't falling. The Lighthouse had nullified gravity. Sheba was currently about a foot above the railing, hovering in mid-air like a photograph of an Olympic diver.

"_Whirlwind!_" she shouted, casting the tornado below herself. The suction pulled her downwards, but as Sheba moved, she pushed the funnel further, diving with what felt like agonising slowness toward the Venus Adept. It seemed that Isaac had been stunned straight back to childhood, watching the murals in wonderment as they melted and reshaped themselves like clouds turning into dragons and ships and rabbits in a high wind.

A chance look upwards snapped him back to reality. "Sheba!" he shouted. "What are you doing?!"

"Trying to help you! You might be a bit more grateful!" she replied, still focusing on the whirlwind.

"I see you've got your rebellious attitude back," he commented dryly, referring to the time when Felix, Jenna, Sheba and Picard had been adventuring on their own. Sheba had developed a bit of an antiauthoritarian spirit in those months, and Jenna in particular had been glad when it subsided later.

"We should be helping them," Mia commented in an annoyed voice as she watched from above.

"Suggestions?" asked Garet sarcastically. "If asked for a plan, I'd probably say 'send Sheba'."

"What's with those two?" called Isaac as Sheba passed by Lycoris and then Orian. Neither were moving much, but they weren't transfixed by the light either.

"Orian looks sort of comatose. I think he's on a power high or something. Lycoris…" Sheba looked back at the girl, curled in space with one hand holding firmly onto the black Psynergy whip and the other over her eyes. Occasionally shadows sparked off her like static electricity on a dry winter night. "Lycoris seems to be having some trouble."

"Clear shot," Garet muttered.

"I've got it," said Felix. "_Spire!_" Venus Psynergy flared, a bit of green in the midst of yellow and white, barely noticeable. He thought it was just the overwhelming brightness that made it look like the stalactite vanished before it could even fall, but a second later Felix realised his casting had been neutralised by the rush of Sol power.

"Fine. Who's got a dagger?" asked Mia. Ivan looked up at her, shocked, but the icy flare in Mia's eyes was not one to be argued with. And Ivan wouldn't have anyway. He knew, as she and all the others did, that Lycoris was more dangerous than Orian. He probably had the greater power, but they were all familiar with the threat of someone who didn't even blink at the idea of killing. Anyone who saw other people as obstacles was way off the danger scale.

"Right here," said Garet, reaching into his pack, but at that moment gravity decided this was no way for a fundamental force to behave. Fortunately, the Lighthouse apparently had also had enough with the slow mystic transformation thing, and with a few solid smashes of stone and metal, it had reshaped the lower levels. The crescendo of slamming continued upward until the entire tower had been turned from temple to dungeon. The walls were still bright and golden, but the Outer Well was no more.

One floor slid out from one side to the other so fast Isaac found himself rolling to a stop after falling the remaining inch or two. Sheba landed on Isaac's back, but leapt up quickly, having experienced a more controlled fall. Lycoris landed lightly, her whip coiling itself into her hand obediently. Orian began to fall, but a flash later, he stood normally beside his sister.

Isaac stood at last, drawing the Sol Blade and standing ready.

"Shall we deal with these two first, then?" asked Orian, straightening his robes and hair.

"I can handle them," said Lycoris, and Isaac shuddered at how normal she sounded. In another place and time, it might have been an older sister insisting that she could look after her younger siblings. "You should get up there and slow the others down. I don't know what they did, but they're going to wish they hadn't."

"If you're sure," said Orian, glancing at Isaac. "But he may yet have a trick or two."

"Go!" shouted Lycoris. "Leave me to these two. You have other tasks. The Sol Star is the ultimate goal." She grinned at Isaac like a tiger at a zebra wearing leg irons.

"Then why wait here?" asked Orian, a touch of defiance in his voice. "They'll only slow us down."

"Isaac is only a threat if we leave him alive. Once he's gone, victory is simply a matter of time."

"You sound pretty confident for someone standing up to Defenders of Venus and Jupiter," said Isaac, confident that he could speak easily now. The fall had been rather terrifying, and he was exhausted.

"If you're sure," Orian relented. Lycoris nodded, and the Sol Adept ran out of the room. For the first time, Isaac noticed the chamber they were in. It was large, square-floored and about equally high. Much of the ceiling was a large white glass circle, at the centre of which was a stained-glass sun with a black crescent moon across it. There were two doors: the one Orian had just left through and another set into a small alcove on an adjacent wall.

"Now then. Ready for a fair duel?" asked Lycoris.

"Fair sounds good to me," said Isaac.

Sheba was shocked. "Fair? You're a Luna Adept, the total void of any true Psynergy, and you call this fair?" Lycoris glanced at her with a look that conveyed a very strong and simple message: you're not worth my time.

"Of course not. I do intend for this to be quite fair. Your vaunted Djinn give you an advantage that simply cannot be ignored, Isaac of Vale."

"And you think your own power doesn't make up for it?" asked Isaac.

"No Psynergy," Lycoris added, graciously. "Just whatever fighting skills you think you've got versus my mastery of combat. But only if you give up the Djinn."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" demanded Isaac. "Djinn die if they don't connect to an Adept." That wasn't quite true, he knew from Bane. Djinn merely began ageing if left alone, and their lifespan could probably only be counted with scientific notation.

"I know that. Give them to her," said Lycoris, gesturing toward Sheba. "And don't try pulling any tricks. I also know that unbalanced levels of set Djinn will cause Psynergy feedback between Adepts. Leave them all on standby, Venus _and_ Jupiter."

"You know a lot," said Isaac, sighing with the awareness that if Lycoris used Psynergy in this battle, he didn't stand a chance. _Everyone on standby,_ he thought. _Switch over to Sheba._

Don't be ridiculous, said Flint. _You think you can trust her?_

Predictably, none of the other Djinn liked the idea either. Bane in particular made his opinion known very vocally. _The boy's an idiot. Don't listen to him._

I'm the Adept here, and the rest of you are going to do what I say, Isaac stated, well aware that they wouldn't take him seriously enough to be offended. _Look, it's my only chance. You've got to go._

It's only your only chance if she follows through on her promise! Would you trust that spider?

Do I have a chance, even with you? Can even one of you stand up to Luna Psynergy?

"No," said Lycoris cutting the Djinn off. "And don't look so shocked. Of course I can read minds."

__

Go, said Isaac, particularly to cut off any further comments. _I'll be back, I promise._ He raised a hand, and a host of lights flew out of Isaac's arm. Close inspection would have shown them to be tiny Djinn spirits, transferring themselves to Sheba. She shook a little at the sudden intrusion into her mind.

"Isaac, you're not going to-"

"Good. That's done. You may begin whenever you wish," she said. The Psynergy whip was sucked back into Lycoris' wrist with a sound that made Isaac's spine try to break out of his back and crawl into hiding. Instead, he simply raised his sword into a guarding position -annoyed at even noticing that it felt a little heavier than he was used to- and took a deep breath.

"I'll take the left," said Sheba, raising her staff.

"You'll stay back out of danger," Isaac corrected her. He wondered if it was worth trying to get the message through covertly, but then remembered Lycoris' mind read. "If things go bad, find the others and give them whatever help you can."

He charged.

The Depths were much brighter now that Jenna had 'flipped' the switch. Most of the spiders had fled back into whatever dark corners they came from, and those that weren't had mostly stopped smoking. She walked back through the tunnels, roughly towards where they had started running from the spider. Jenna turned a corner and found Picard, slumped against the wall, holding something against his arm.

No one quite knew what had caused the evolution of the plant usually just called antidote, which naturally could neutralise just about every poison in the world. At this moment, breathing more easily every second, Picard didn't much care how it worked, as long as it continued to do so. As Jenna approached, he pulled another of the plants from his pack, crushed the blue berries in one hand, and applied it to his leg.

"Careful there. You don't want to overdose on that sort of thing," she warned him. Picard looked up at her with an unusual wild light in his golden eyes that faded as he realised that she couldn't possibly understand what had just happened.

"What could it do that would be worse than that spider's venom?" asked Picard, and then he winced and wished he hadn't.

"You could end up with an antidote-based hallucination in which melting bread explains to you the true meaning of limestone," she suggested, and Picard couldn't help laughing, even though it hurt. "Hey, those some nasty gashes. Let me take a look at that." Jenna kneeled beside the Lemurian, but he pulled back.

"Hey, which one of us is the Mercury Adept here?" he asked rhetorically.

"Which one of us may well have a chip or two of exoskeleton still stuck inside them?" she returned.

"What are the cha-AAGH!" Picard's question turned into a yelp as Jenna reach down and pulled a black shard out of his leg. "…You could have just said something."

"We don't have time. We have to get back up there fast, so hold still. I've never done anything this detailed before." And of course Aura Psynergy affected all the Adepts in her range, so it would take twice the power to heal anything, as the Psynergy would be cast on herself as well.

"You've never talked to someone while healing them, either."

"How did you know?"

"…Luck."

Jenna ignored the comment, which was most definitely not quite true, and set to work. She really hoped all the right bits were still inside, since Mia had told her several times that trying to make people regenerate rather than repair was a lot harder.

Once the blood had been washed away, Jenna tried to decide how exactly she was going to figure out whether or not there was anything in there to get out. She slid her pack off her shoulders and started rummaging through its contents. "I'm going to need some help. Could Chill or Spring-"

"I can handle this," said Justice, speaking with a slightly offended tone as she landed.

"Fine." The thin blade Jenna had produced flared red for a second and even Cannon felt the heat. "Cool it down, will you?" Something at the core of Justice's eyes flickered, sparks of Psynergy whirled around her, and the dagger returned to its usual steel grey with a tiny clink of cooling metal. Jenna looked from the edge to the Lemurian. "Hold on."

"If we don't move now, we'll have lost our only advantage. We have to get to the top before Orian." Felix took a deep breath. "Even Isaac and Sheba aren't as important as that." To his surprise, both Garet and Mia failed to knock him senseless.

"But there are only four of us now," Ivan pointed out, still stuck on that moment when Sheba had pulled him back. She didn't do that sort of thing much. It was like… well, from the thoughts he had picked up on, he thought Sheba had decided that she'd rather take the danger than let Ivan be threatened. 

Sheba was good at judging danger.

"So what do we do? Go help Isaac and Sheba? They can take care of themselves for now. Isaac would freak if we went after him instead of heading up anyway," said Mia, and even without reading her mind Ivan could practically hear her thinking 'Idiot. Brave and wonderful and intelligent, too. But still idiot.'

"Right. Seraph, get us the hell up there right now," said Garet.

"That'll be difficult now that the labyrinth defences are active. It all depends on whether or not we managed to get past the gates before those two stopped us. Or rather, where the gates are _now_," said the Sol Djinni. "Come on."

"Have you ever noticed," asked Ivan as they started running again, "that nothing good ever involves gates? They're always in the way. They never stop anyone but us."

Isaac held the Sol Blade's hilt close to his body as he ran, knowing that inexperienced fighters often panicked when someone went for a fast and strong stab. It was easy to parry, but they had to stay calm-

It was a moment after he leapt back holding his bleeding forearm that Isaac managed to figure out what had happened. The strange short sword in Lycoris' hand that now dripped with his blood was a good hint. The blade wasn't much more than a foot long, wavy like the kris carried by people on Atteka continent, but also curved, like a Gondowan scimitar.

She hadn't dodged, she hadn't blocked. Lycoris had simply drawn the weapon and slashed his arm. She didn't even consider the defensive options. She drew blood. If Isaac had been anything but a Venus Adept, and a good one, that would have seriously scared him.

"Don't even think about interfering, kid. This is one-on-one. Any hint of Psynergy, any Summoning, and all the rules are broken," said Lycoris, noticing Sheba's expression. Isaac paused for another moment, still clutching his arm, longer than necessary. As he had hoped, she continued. "Besides, it wouldn't do you any-"

Isaac had heard somewhere that the best warriors never spoke in battle. They took advantage of the slight delays when people had to switch from talking to fighting. Now was a perfectly good time to try, he supposed.

Lycoris was fast, though, and blocked, but the simple reality was that Isaac had been trained by the greatest quest ever undertaken on Weyard, and he was much stronger. He knocked the guarding blade out of the way and sliced. Lycoris rolled and dodged with the motion, so that the edge of the Sol Blade just skimmed along her back.

"You're not bad," she admitted. The kris came whirring through the air at Isaac's head. By the time he blocked, she was already striking low on the other side. A quick twist deflected that shot, but Lycoris spun and caught him in the neck with a kick. "But if this is the best you've got, I'm really not impressed."

Isaac's next strike came in low and upwards, threatening to remove any number of important parts if she didn't block or avoid it. Lycoris sheathed the kris and grabbed Isaac by the shoulders, vaulting over him. She landed, drew, and slashed, but Isaac's armor and the fact that he was already spinning to dodge and strike back made it less than effective. The sudden jab with her blade turned the swinging edge away from Lycoris, but the flat of it still smashed into her and knocked her to the floor.

"If you were anything more than a self-obsessed wanna-be tyrant, you might know that it's better to save a trick or two for when your opponent thinks they know you," Isaac pointed out. Lycoris leapt to her feet and dove back into battle.

"Are you sure that's clean enough to -AH!" shouted Picard as Jenna began easing a mandible part from his leg. The metal was still hot, which had good and bad points, and mostly the bad ones were on his mind, as well as the sudden jolt of pain.

"I said hold on," Jenna reminded him.

"If you focus on it, it's just going to feel worse," Justice pointed out.

"Tell me of your valiant journeys, brave Herald!" said Guardian. "I would greatly like to know more of the towers of the elements within Mars Lighthouse."

"I don't think I can be that coherent," said Picard, slightly gurgling every word. "Jenna seems to be cauterising every nerve in my leg, and it's a bit of a distraction."

"I'm doing what I can to keep you from taking permanent damage. There's a chip stuck in your… help me out here, Justice. Which one's the tibia and which is the fibula?"

"Oh, Spirits, let this end…"

"Hold on, you weakling!" At this, Picard began to laugh. "Great. I think he's snapped." Either proving or disproving Jenna's theory, Picard began to sing again.

"_Hold on_

Hold on to yourself

'Cause this is gonna hurt like hell

Hold on

Hold on to yourself

You know that only time will tell

What is it in me that refuses to believe-"

It was about there that Guardian detonated the sleep bomb.

"This could really be good or bad," said Luff, staring in bewilderment at all the clockwork in front of them. The room appeared bottomless, simply a sheer drop between the two doors -in keeping with Lighthouse tradition- but axles stuck out of both walls of the chasm. The majority of the room was rotating somehow, and it was definitely implied that people were expected to be very good at what they did if they wanted to cross.

"I vote bad," said Garet a moment later.

"Looks deep," Felix observed.

"Looks unusually sadistic," Mia suggested.

"Looks fun," said Ivan. The others glared at him. "No, really." He unslung his pack and began rummaging through it. "Look, I've got one of Sheba's old staves in here."

"I'm not surprised," said Garet, but he went no further when Mia glared at him.

With a flourish, Ivan produced a dragon's head-tipped staff. It appeared to be solid bronze and very sturdy. "I think, with this, it shouldn't be too hard to hold on to one of those axles."

"And the other three of us?" asked Felix. 

Ivan looked at him blankly for a moment. "Well, it's something," he said at last.

"I think you might be forgetting about us," Aeon pointed out.

"And how do you intend to help? I don't recall anyone mentioning levitation Psynergy," said Garet.

"We could use a Hover point," Mia said.

"We could use a collapsible bridge," commented Garet.

"We could use a door with a sign saying 'This way to Sol Lighthouse Aerie'," said Felix.

"If anyone so much as begins to say the word 'kraken', they will regret it," Ivan warned them.

Even the harsh clang of metal colliding and grinding together was fading from Sheba's notice. All she could see was that even though Isaac was fighting as well as she had ever known him to, he was still tired, and Lycoris seemed to exist on the demonic equivalent of a sugar rush. She saw every move Isaac made before he was half into it, and never seemed to take a hit. On the other side, he was bleeding from half a dozen minor slices dealt by Lycoris' weapon.

It was also maddening to know she couldn't help Isaac. Lycoris didn't seem to notice that Sheba was constantly probing at her mind, occasionally picking up a stray unshielded thought, but it would do no good to tell everyone. She had to wait for a chance to turn the battle decisively.

_How long will you wait?_

_Blitz, unless you have a really good plan, be quiet!_

_He's right,_ added another Djinni. _We don't have time for this._

_Whorl, stop it! Both of you. Isaac might depend on me before this ends- I can't be distracted with upstart Djinn if or when he does!_

_You'd think she'd be happy to have backup,_ said Whorl.

_Or at least moral support,_ Blitz agreed.

_Now stop it,_ Bane interjected. _The girl's right, and if I were here for anything longer than the next few minutes, I'd have a serious talk with both of you about discipline. Who's the eldest Djinni here?_

_You are, sir,_ replied Haze, full of awe.

_I like your attitude,_ said Bane. _The rest of you could learn a thing or two from him. Anyway, I meant Jupiter._

_Right here,_ said Gale. _What do you-_

_Can't you communicate without using my brain as a conference room? Lives are at stake here!_ Sheba shook her head as though she could throw off the confusion from the chorus of voices. Slowly her thoughts cleared enough for her to notice what was happening in the battle. Just in time to see a blade dart in between the plates of Isaac's armor.

"Thanks for not knocking me out too, Guardian," muttered Jenna. "I don't think Picard would enjoy having five inches of cobalt sliding through his calves as I fell over."

"He knows that they have small areas of effect. Therefore, so do I," explained Guardian. "Now are you or are you not going to finish healing him? There are battles yet to be won!"

"And fragments yet to be removed. Damn it, this thing's caught on a muscle or something… I don't want to cause extra damage…" Jenna muttered to herself, working at a shard of the giant spider's broken mandibles. Apparently it had found armor at bit tougher to chew than expected, but neither opponent had noticed in the midst of shadowy combat.

"Cuts are something you can fix with a thoughts, Jenna," said Justice. "You just want these things out fast."

"In that case," she said, cringed in preparation, "I guess it's good that you knocked him out, then." Jenna reached in with her free hand and grabbed hold of the curved shard. Once sure that she had a firm grip, Jenna eased it into position as well as she could and pulled. Even through the cloak of sleep, his face twitched. So did a lot of the rest of him.

"Tell me that's it," said Jenna, wiping her brow. She stared at the gloves she had just used, stains and all, and removed it before wiping again. This time, she felt it made an improvement, rather than making her look like she had just headbutted a troll to death.

"Would I know?" asked Justice.

"One of you had better know!" she said, raising the dagger. Guardian would have sworn her eyes flamed, and so he quickly slipped into Picard's subconscious again. He reappeared a moment later.

"That's everything. Nothing in that leg that shouldn't be there," the Sol Djinni reported.

"Good," said Jenna. "Time to start sealing him up, then. With all this blood lost, I don't know how long he can last without serious healing."

"Um…" Justice began as Jenna raised a hand, "do you have any Psynergy left?" A sparkle or two flew from her palm, but then nothing. "No. I thought not. This could complicate things."

"This is truly a plan beyond the scope of my comprehension. Absolutely above and beyond anything else you've ever come up with, Ivan," said Garet. He looked down. There was still no floor. He looked up. There weren't many handholds except those he had already been lucky enough to find. "A complete disaster. The thing is, what the hell made you think it was a _good_ plan?"

"If you would stop complaining and start reaching," said Ivan, rotating by on a large gear.

"Oh, good. And when you spin back away and I'm left hanging by _one_ arm?" he asked sarcastically.

"Look, you might as well try," called Felix.

"Yes, the only downside is the fatal -if not endless- fall below me! Have you noticed that we're not getting any echoes? I don't think this hole ends!"

"Well then, I guess you'll never hit anything, will you?" said Mia.

"No, and with any luck I might starve before I dehydrate! But wait! I have rations with me! So not only am I going to dehydrate, I'm going to take a long time to do it!" he shouted with the irrationally of those facing down a terrible end and knowing that they might be getting off easy. After all, Orian was still somewhere out there, climbing as well as he could toward the Aerie…

"Shouldn't you be running out of breath or something?" asked Mia.

"Actually… no. I feel fine," Garet said, suddenly realising that he wasn't losing his grip at all.

"I knew you were forgetting about us," said Aeon.

"They're really quite self-centred," Seraph muttered, appearing and touching down weightlessly on Garet's hands. The single block jutting a few inches out of the wall had been rather convenient, now that he thought about it, but when something saves your life, it doesn't seem grateful to question it, even if it is inanimate.

"I thought you said you defended against physical attacks," said Garet.

"Well, yes. But I also made you a Titan, and with that comes a good share of Psynergy-enhanced muscle power. Also, you Moved this block out of the wall instinctively, which I thought was a nice touch."

"Hmm. Extra strength, you say?" repeated Garet, looking around.

"Yeah. Actually, Lycoris was doing something very similAGH!" Seraph cut himself off as Garet burst away from the wall, removing the Djinni's perch. Garet soared across to the other wall and just managed to get a good grip with his boots before ricocheting up again. A few rebounds later, he crashed down beside Ivan.

"That was a rush," Garet breathed. "Seraph, get your spiky tail up here. We have an elemental Star to save."

"Great. He's gone adventurous again," muttered Ivan, and jumped to the next massive wheel.

"Mythril shirt," said Lycoris sourly as Isaac stepped away, unharmed by her stab.

"Yeah. Read about something like it once before, and thought it would make a nice backup plan," the Venus Adept replied. "Troll's spear, in that case, so if you think you can cut through it with that warped thing, I'll be quite impressed."

"You'll tire, you know," said Lycoris, coming in with an overhead slash but switching hands at the last moment, intending to surprise him with a low cut. Isaac wasn't so easily tricked, even when he was this tired, and blocking the strike. "You can't keep up with me."

"Oh really? You're not breaking our no-Psynergy rule, are you?" asked Isaac. "No little boosts to your speed or stamina, are there?"

"You're a good opponent, Isaac of Vale. There's no need to ruin it by becoming annoying, too," Lycoris responded, twirling away from a triple-slash sequence.

"Hey, whatever works," Isaac muttered, and tried to knock her legs out fom under her, receiving a swift kick in the shoulder for his efforts. He caught sight of Sheba, still waiting anxiously and impatiently at the side. With eighteen Jupiter and Venus Djinn gathered somewhere in her soul. All on standby… "Sheba, go and find the others!"

"_What?!_" she shouted.

"I can handle this, don't worry! You have to go help Ivan and the rest of them! I'll be there soon, I promise!" She began to argue, but an expression appeared on her face just as her mouth snapped shut that was too bizarre for it to be anything other than Bane cutting her off. Slowly and still very annoyed, she nodded.

There was a flicker of purple light, and a Jupiter Djinni appeared. "Blitz is going to stay here and keep an eye on you! He'll lead you to me when you're ready- look out!" Isaac dropped to the floor and rolled back up, just as Lycoris' blade swept overhead. Once she saw that he was okay, Sheba dashed out of the room. The entire Lighthouse was burning with Psynergy of all kinds… she had to seek out the only other part that glowed with power like her own…

"Well, it's nice to have her out of the way," Lycoris said pleasantly, blocking a slash. "Tell me, Isaac, do you find me attractive?"

"This is the best plan you've got?" asked Justice.

"Do you have anything better?" demanded Jenna.

"I approve of your daring," said Guardian appraisingly.

"He's still out cold, right?" she asked.

"Like a candle in a hurricane."

Jenna looked at the dagger clutched in her hand, and the unconscious Lemurian below it. "Where's the heart? I don't want to kill him by accident. I don't even know if Revive works except under special circumstances, and I definitely don't have it."

_Even if you did, I could handle it. You know that._

"Oh, all right. Here goes…" Jenna took a deep breath and plunged her dagger into Picard's torso. She took an agonising moment to wait for his face to start looking pale, and then called up power. "_Unleash Tinder!_" The soul of a Mars Djinni appeared, flaming with Psynergy, and shafts of light shone down on Picard. Phoenix feathers swirled around them for a moment, and then all his injuries sealed themselves. The paleness faded from his face, and Jenna exhaled for the first time in a minute or so.

"I think we should leave him for now," said Guardian. "Psynergy's no match for rest, and you're not in such great shape yourself. Take a few moments to breathe."

"I thought we were in a rush," said Jenna, trying to stand. Both Sol Djinn landed on her shoulders and pushed her back down to lie against the wall.

"Not really. We were just trying to speed you up," said Justice.

"You-!"

Spiritual sheep rained through the tunnel as Justice flapped a wing impatiently. Jenna slumped, trying weakly to resist the Sleep Psynergy. "We really don't have much time, you know," she said to Guardian.

"It will do no good to get them killed," he replied. "We can wait a few minutes. In the meantime, see if she has a vial on her. I don't like the looks of these scratches on her shoulders."

Jenna snored quietly.

"I mean, really," said Lycoris. "Powerful, assertive… these are supposed to be good, right? Don't men want someone who's outgoing and follows her dreams, no matter the struggle?"

"When you try to kill my friends in the process, I think there's more than one angle to consider. And if you say anything else about what 'men want' I may forget how nice and merciful heroes are supposed to be," Isaac growled.

_Heroes?_ asked a voice in his head. _Got a pretty good opinion of yourself, haven't you?_

_I hope you have a really good point,_ Isaac responded. He hated dealing with philosophical questions in the middle of combat, and he was pretty sure that this would soon be one. _Otherwise I don't have time._

Voices in one's head rarely take the hint. _Well, you were thinking just a few days ago about being a hero, weren't you? Something about thinking that even though you all survived the journey, the quest took your life anyway?_

"Besides, you can't possibly tell me that this sort of figure counts for nothing," said Lycoris, twisting into a quick pose. Isaac paused for just a fraction of a second, and she smashed him down. "Now _that_ was pathetically easy. So much for higher ideas, I suppose."

"Don't give yourself too much credit," said Isaac.

_What exactly did you mean?_

I guess… I was running the whole time, trying to stop the Lighthouses from being lit, and then trying to light the last one, and fighting hundreds of monsters and it was all a great adventure… and then it ended, and I was supposed to stop running… And I'm not sure I could…

"True. Unless I'm much mistaken, Miss Mia of Imil wears that big thick cloak all the time. I suppose you'd react like that to just about anyone who showed some-"

She meant to make him angry. That was the whole point. Angry people are supposed to lose focus. Isaac had learned, though, and it worked the other way around. Fury in him just narrowed the view. He leapt, spinning in mid-air, and thrust backwards, cutting deeply into Lycoris' shoulder, then drawing back and landing on guard again.

"Shut up, damn you," said Isaac. "I don't have time for this. Lives are at stake and I'm standing here listening to you spew garbage about everything in the world. Just shut up. I've fought undead and slime beasts and walked through about four sewer-like things that someone decided were vital parts of the elemental Lighthouses and walked right out again feeling just fine, but about two minutes after meeting you I want to burn these clothes and shower for about a year. So don't say a thing, all right? You taint every word you speak."

"You're right about one thing, Isaac of Vale," said Lycoris, her blade slicing close to him on either side, but always being deflected before it could cut. She didn't seem to care.

"What?" he demanded.

"There is a life at stake here," said Lycoris. She slashed one more time, cutting the last leather strap of his armor -he hadn't even noticed the others go- and watching it fall to the floor with a clatter. The kris came in again, and cut under the shirt. "Yours."

Blitz wanted to turn away, or close his eyes, but he knew that Sheba had to tell the others. Lycoris' blade cut into the side of Isaac's stomach and then drove deeper, opening him to the middle and then twisting, slicing upwards.

A few floors above, still connected to Blitz's sight in her mind's eyes, Sheba faltered, fell to her knees, and choked. She couldn't hold it after what she saw, and was sick.

Isaac collapsed to the floor, and his vision started to go dark. Before it faded out completely, one last question came from the voice.

_I can't help but wonder… what were you running from?_

Sheba tried to get up, to keep moving, but now tears were streaming down her face, and she couldn't see where she was going. She fell against a wall and slid to the floor. A few floors up, Ivan suddenly caught a thought so strong he didn't even see it coming.

"Oh… oh god…" he whispered. Felix, Garet, and Mia looked at him, wondering why he had suddenly stopped before a jump. "Isaac…" Their expressions remained wary, uncertain. "He's dead."

****

[Author's Notes] I'll leave you with that. Credit to the muse, of course. Next part up as soon as I write it. Now go review.


	7. Final Gauntlet

**[Author's Notes]**  Wow.  Notes first.  Unusual for me, but for one joyous occasion I actually have reviews to respond to, so here we go.  

To **Ryan Griffin: Oh, good questions.  Well, let's see.  Firstly, Luna Psynergy is still Psynergy, but it has no weakness.  For example, Mars tends to be vulnerable to Mercury.  Luna, on the other hand, sucks everything in and doesn't care what it is.  For the other two questions… well, that would be telling, now wouldn't it?  All shall be revealed in good time.  **

As for **Midnight C, ****Griffinkhan,**** and **Alex**…  What makes you think there was a cliffhanger in there?  No, really.  I didn't intend any cliffhanger.  Oh, just go read the next chapter.  (And in case anyone's wondering, I have so far written all GS fics in the same continuity-universy thing, by which I mean anything mentioned that you don't remember from the games should be found in another fic.)**

**Shining In The Darkness**

**A Tale of Sol and Luna**

**Chapter Seven: Final Gauntlet**

                Blitz stared at Isaac's body for a few minutes longer, furious with the knowledge that he couldn't do anything.  Couldn't _have done anything, rather.  He had gone into battle knowing that Lycoris had every advantage, that he would only win if she never had a chance to break her own rules.  And now Isaac of Vale, a Defender of Venus and the wielder of the Sol Blade, lay dead in front of him.  Lycoris had waited a moment, watching to ensure that this was no trick._

                The Djinni could have spared her the trouble.  Ivan and Sheba were Wind Seers without any Djinn attached, which meant that in some indescribably way, they could see the air currents as they twisted about.  It was a power shared by all the Jupiter Djinn as well, and Blitz could sense no motion from him.  Isaac was not breathing, even slightly.  The Sol Blade's handle lay in his limp grasp, its blade no longer glowing.

                She shook her head, wiped the blade on his scarf, and walked out of the room.

                Blitz returned to Sheba.

                The body remained, still motionless.

                "It just can't be like this," said Sheba, trying to stop her tears.  "He can't be dead… not Isaac."  Infinity was silent.  She didn't know how to deal with death, really.  Most of the Sol Djinn, so close to the Star all their long existences, hadn't even begun to age.  Harmony alone had been born elsewhere, and so felt the weight of a few years.  Even being old, like Bane, was beyond Infinity's comprehension.  Death, natural or not, was unthinkable to the long-youthful Djinni.  But she could still see that sorrow would cause yet more pain.

                "I'm….  I'm sorry, Sheba.  But if we don't find the others fast like Isaac asked at the…  like he wanted, then we might be too late," said Infinity, slowly.

                "You're not going to just sit-" began Whorl, but he was cut off by someone who knew what to say.

                "Don't give up hope," said Breath, the Jupiter Djinni that had known Sheba longest, since their first day of adventuring.  "We can still make a difference here.  Don't let anyone stop you now, Sheba."

                Breath's friendship gave her an advantage here in getting Sheba back from the edge.  She knew how Sheba was thinking right now, and exactly how to stop it.  With a final sigh, Sheba picked up her staff and put her weight on it, rising to her feet again.  Tears still streaked her face, but she didn't seem to take any notice.  The Prophet simply walked out of the room, determination ringing from her footsteps.

                "I don't think we can wait any longer," said Justice, uncomfortably.

                "Agreed.  There is no more time for rest.  Now is the time for valor!" shouted Guardian.  Jenna twitched and opened her eyes.  The Valkyrie looked around for a moment, her eyes settling on Justice, flapping not too far away.

                "You've got some nerve for a person with no arms," she said, eventually.  She looked to the unconscious Lemurian.  "Picard's still out?"

                "Apparently he got a good breath of that sleep bomb," said Justice, ignoring the comment.

                "Let me handle this," said Jenna, holding back the two fluttering Djinn.  She crawled over to Picard, brushed his long blue hair out of his face, and screamed "And if you ever even try to _touch me again I'll do worse than knock you senseless, you lecherous relic!"_

                Picard's golden eyes snapped open and he leapt to his feet, head whirling about, trying to find the source of the sudden auditory assault.  Eventually he had the presence of mind to look down, and found his gaze returned with a glare that burned with hellish flames.

                "What did… how could… why…"  Picard paused as memory and understanding rolled over him.  "You blasted Mars Adepts," he groaned, the dizziness of sudden awakening and jumping upright catching up with him.

                "Can you blame me for having some fun before we head up there to get beaten senseless?" Jenna asked, packing away the few instruments she had used while healing him.  That done, she heaved the pack back onto her shoulders and beckoned for Justice.

                "I suppose not," Picard admitted.  He thought for a moment.  "How many Mars Adepts does it take to light a lantern?"  As they started after Guardian, who knew a shortcut back towards the top, Jenna looked at the newly-declared Herald skeptically.

                "How many?" she responded after a moment.

                "Four.  One to light it, one to pick up the pieces, one to get another lantern, and one to find a Mercury Adept to do it properly."

                "…You don't fear death, do you?"

                "I'm a Lemurian.  After a few centuries of practice, you would not either."

                "What do you mean, Isaac's dead?  You mean he's been downed?  We should get down there before-"  Ivan barely had the heart to cut Garet's hopeful bravery off, but he had seen the images in his head.

                "No, Garet, I don't mean he's taken a mortal injury or something.  I mean he's dead."  Ivan looked around at the other Adepts, all caught in the middle of crossing the clockwork-filled chasm.  Mia alone, who had just reached the other side and was just about to throw the dragon-headed staff to Felix so he could make the last jump, could take the luxury of leaning against a wall for support.

                She swallowed with some difficulty.  "There's got to be a mistake.  Isaac-"

                "Isaac is already gone," said Ivan, wishing he didn't have to say this.  "Blitz saw it happen, so Sheba saw it happen, so I saw it happen.  There's nothing we can do."

                "Revive," muttered Felix, wishing that the gear he was standing on would stop turning for a moment.  It felt ridiculous in a situation like this, even though he knew it was irrational to expect machinery to notice a solemn moment.

                "We've only had to use it a couple of times-" began Mia, but she stopped, remembering Venus Lighthouse.  Garet noticed, and continued for her.

                "You've seen it too, when you've had to use Revive Psynergy," said the Mars Adept.  "Revive only works if the body is still intact, mostly.  Lycoris would probably know that.  Even if she didn't, somehow I think she…" Garet trailed off too, looking to Ivan, who slowly shook his head.  Garet's hatred of the Luna Adept increased a thousandfold.

                "Then what _do_ we do?" asked Felix, aware that this wasn't the sort of thing a real leader was supposed to say at a time like this.

                Ivan realised, with a bit of a shock, that he was suddenly the one in charge.  Garet was furious, Mia was heartbroken, and Felix was helpless.  "We have to keep going.  Stopping now means we lose everything."

                "The Archon is right," said Oracle, sparkling into existence on top of Ivan's head (he was quickly moved for appearance's sake).  "Isaac knew what he was doing-"  A fraction of a second later, Ivan was struggling to shove Oracle into his pack, aware that noble speeches were not a good plan right now.

                Mia didn't even notice what was happening.  She was lost in thought and memory.  An eternity ago, back at the top of Venus Lighthouse, Isaac had defied death and saved her when the Fusion Dragon had tried to remove the threat she posed before dealing with the others.  The Venus Adept had gone on to break the dragon and defeat Saturos and Menardi, calling on Judgment for the first time.

                The boy -comparing Isaac then, not even two years ago, to the Isaac she had known yesterday, he did seem like just a boy- had even been too shy to kiss her, even though they were already falling in love.  Romantic cluelessness, another one of the things about him that she liked…  Well, Mia had dealt with that part Isaac forgot, she remembered with a smile.  She could almost feel his hand in her grasp, and tried to squeeze it for assurance…

                Her hand closed on empty air.

                "Where do I go from here?" demanded Sheba, who had made her way into the labyrinth that was once the vast emptiness of the Outer Well.  Ivan -and therefore the others- were somewhere not too far above her, and she had to catch up quickly.

                "The fastest way, please," Whorl added.

                "Well," Infinity replied slowly, "fastest is a relative thing.  Monsters-"

                "-had better run for cover," said Sheba, cutting the warning off.

                "Right, then," said Infinity, trying not to be unnerved, since Sheba's current attitude was about as unexpected and terrifying as watching a chipmunk pull a magnum on a pack of ravenous wolves.  "If we're going that way, you might want to know about some of the new Psynergy you've got…"

                "Mia?" said Garet, quietly.  Ivan was swinging back and forth on one last axle.  At the end of his forward swoop, he flipped and unhooked the curved head of the staff from the shaft, flipping backwards once and landing, lighter than the others, near the door out of the room.  Felix and Garet had already crossed.

                Felix came up behind Garet, who was keeping his distance from the Mercury Adept.  Mia sat against the wall, legs drawn up to her body, her forehead resting on her crossed arms.  They couldn't see her face, but it wasn't exactly hard to guess why she seemed to be hiding.

                "Maybe we-" Felix began, but Garet raised a hand to silence him.  He looked back to Mia, and wondered for a moment why she was clutching her staff so tightly.

                "Mia?" called Garet again, and very slowly her whitened knuckles relaxed, just slightly.  "We need to keep moving…"

                "Why?" she whispered, asking the empty air.  Garet started to say something, but Mia continued her question before he could ask what she meant.  "Why did he have to go?  Why did it have to be Isaac…"

                "Who would you have sent in his place?" asked Saviour, wavering into reality as she spoke.

                Mia looked shocked at the question, but she knew it was a good one.  "Myself," she snapped after a moment, and her head sank back down.  Saviour looked nonplussed by the angry response, and calmly dealt the verbal equivalent of a slap back to her.

                "So you'd feel better if you were dead and Isaac were sitting where you are now, broken and mourning for you?  You'd give this pain to him so that you wouldn't have to take it any more?" demanded the Sol Djinni.  Mia's eyes flashed furiously as she snapped back up to glare at Saviour.  "I'm not impressed, Mia of Imil.  I'd expect better of a hero."

                "That's not-!" Mia began angrily, but she was cut off.

                "Isaac was likely the greatest hero Weyard has ever seen.  He did what he _didn't have to do, just to give you and everyone else a chance.  You say you loved him, and he decided his life wasn't too great a sacrifice this time.  Could you dare to not be worth that?"_

                Mia was silent for a moment.  She looked at the staff, her knuckled again whitened by the force with which she gripped it.  After a moment, the Mercury Adept raised herself from the floor and turned toward the others.  "All right.  Let's find that Star."  Then Mia turned to Garet, her dark expression matching his.  "And then we'll find Lycoris."  The quiet rage in Garet's eyes as he nodded terrified Ivan to his core.

                In the stillness of the now long-empty room, the body of Isaac continued to lie unmoving.

                Sheba lay flat against the floor, looking out over the ledge at the creatures Sol Lighthouse had shaped when Picard or Jenna activated the labyrinth defences.  Four of the monsters had gathered in the chamber below her, and the Jupiter Adept thought there were several more in the halls ahead.  She didn't want to imagine something else that could make that clinking-scraping sound with every heavy step.

                "What are they?" she whispered to Infinity.

                "I don't really… wait… yes.  Yes, that's right.  They're called Mortacles," the Djinni answered slowly, as though she was remembering she had never been told.

                "The underside of the world is just full of surprises, isn't it?  Usually sharp ones."

                Even compared to the beasts outside, the dark Sorro'wings and vicious Drenmar, these creatures looked a dangerous force to consider attacking.  The Mortacles were likely twelve feet tall, and they would have reminded Sheba of the great bears of northern Angara, except that instead of thick fur, the beasts' coats were layers of ragged icicles that clattered almost melodiously as they turned about.  One stomped by, clattering with every step and slowly chipping its wicked armor down to fragments.  It paused in its slow, deliberate step, and from between the foggy white of the icicles it released a minor flow of water.  The drops rolled along the shards and enveloped them, freezing in place.  In less than thirty seconds, it was coated in frosty spikes.

                "How did it do that?" asked Blitz, as confused as Sheba and all the other Jupiter Djinn.

                "Look closely," said Infinity.  "Wait for one to turn around."  At last a Mortacle did glance down the corridor below Sheba, and after all this time, she was only slightly surprised to see that the yeti-like creature's face was no more than a mask of ice, behind which the pure-water core of its body flowed furiously.  "They can, of course, replenish themselves with Psynergy," the Djinni went on.  "We should be careful."

                "Sheba," said Ether, quietly, "I've been looking through your mind, and I've been finding Psynergy that definitely isn't usually there."

                "Is that good or bad?" muttered Sheba uncertainly.

                "Your range of Jupiter powers has been rather expanded now that I am with you," said Infinity, as though it should be obvious.  "I'm not a master of these things, but you should be capable of casting anyth-"

                "There it is," said Sheba, victoriously.  She had been searching for a power she had used once or twice before, when swapping Djinn with the others in unusual situations.  Watching the Mortacles milling about, occasionally grinding their arms together impatiently, the idea had appeared that this was one of them.

                "You intend to go on with this?" asked Infinity, but Sheba didn't other answering.  She simply called the air into an updraft below the shadowy ledge she lay on and leapt.  "This is definitely not a good plan."

                The strong updraft carried Sheba to the floor lightly, and the hulking creatures barely noticed her near-silent touchdown as she slid off the winds.  They did notice, however, when the Prophet shouted "_Flash Bolt!_" and evaporated the water inside three of their number with a lightning strike.  The frosty shells collapse to the floor, breaking in several places, but one more remained, and quick, clinking footsteps echoed through the halls.  "Come on," said Sheba, raising Atropos' Rod to readiness against the alerted monster.

                The Mortacle, though still several feet away, raised an arm and swung at her, jerking in the middle of the arc.  An unpleasant shattering sound was immediately followed by the flight of the ice-creature's spiky hand -which appeared to have the usual number of fingers, cubed.  It skipped off the ground and hurtled toward Sheba's face, but with agility that was expected of Jupiter Adepts, she spun away from it.  Icy shrapnel bounced away.

                "Okay, that was good, but why bother with the old Psynergy-" began Infinity, but she swerved to dodge a flying shard and by the time she could find Sheba, the Prophet was heading into battle.  "This is _so_ not a good plan," she muttered.

                The chamber beyond the chasm of clockwork was much easier to navigate, and actually had a floor.  Ivan considered this a major bonus in a dungeon room.  They stood on a platform perhaps ten feet from the floor, and the room was mostly empty, except for a second door on the adjacent wall, and the images of ancient times that was drawn with ridges on all the walls of the Lighthouse.

                "Doesn't look too bad," Ivan commented, hoping to get something other than dull rage out of Garet.

                "Waste of time if this is all there is to the room," Mia muttered.  "Keep moving."

                Felix took a step, and a dire click, like the closing of the gates of Hell, echoed off the far wall.  As one, the Adepts turned to look at where Felix had just placed his foot.  What was left of the ragged, dark brown boot was right in the middle of a silver and bronze plate in the floor, and into it a twisted line had been carved.

                "Is that supposed to be a fish?" asked Ivan, almost hopefully.

                "It's an aleph," Garet replied, uncertainty in his voice.  "That was on the arch just outside Vale, on the path to Mount Aleph.  Sol Sanctum," he added, but Ivan and Mia already knew.  The confusion they now showed was over what on Weyard it could mean.

                Stones began grinding heavily, and the opposite wall of the room shifted.  It almost seemed to be rolling back to either side; individual stones turned as though on hinges and after just a moment, a space had been cleared in the middle of the wall.  Out of the shadow beyond the wall slid something that was half mural, half statue.  At first, the creature was merely an embossed picture like all the others, but about halfway up it reached out of the flatness, three golden hydra heads with maws wide open.

                "If they want an elemental star or something, make it clear I don't have one," whispered Felix, remembering Mars Lighthouse with a shudder.  Ivan laughed, but silenced himself quickly.  Mia and Garet didn't twitch.

                "That was definitely ominous," said Ivan.  "Let's get going before-"

                With a slight rumble, the mouths of the hydra heads glowed red from some internal source.  That source was made clear a moment later, when it began pouring out between the fangs of the statue.  The lava didn't hiss when it touched the floor, nor did it make the slightest mark on the pale golden stones.  It did, however, continue flowing and spreading across the perfect surface.

                "Real good, rock boy!" growled Garet.

                "Garet, will you just see if you can do something about that lava?" asked Ivan, trying to sound authoritative enough to move Garet's rage onto something that was actually a problem, instead of a convenient target who was on their side.

                "Like what?" asked Garet, now glaring at the flow of molten rock.  "I guess I could try to melt the things closed."

                "If the magma they're spewing isn't doing that, nothing you throw at them will," Mia pointed out.

                "Oh really?  Well, do whatever you think you should, but I don't intend to give up-"  He never could have expected a slap that fast, and Garet wasn't sure if he would have done anything anyway.  "Sorry," he whispered.  "I deserved that."

                "I loved him," Mia said, cringing at the past tense.  She was shaking slightly, for any number of reasons.  "And just because he was your best friend doesn't give you the right to go off in a blind rage and try to throw away the rest of us."

                "Does she always slap people before saying something profound?" asked Felix.  "I think she's done it before."  Ivan looked up at the Venus Adept and couldn't help laughing.  After a moment, Mia and Garet joined them, though their mirth was short-lived.

                "_Inferno!" shouted Garet, and unleashed a storm of white-hot fireballs that blasted into the opposite wall.  The lava had reached a depth of perhaps two feet now, and was continuing unabated.  "I guess you were right.  Okay.  I've seen you guys do this with wind and water all the time.  How hard could it be?"_

                "Thanks," said Ivan, wryly.

                Garet focused, trying to get into that intensely mental part of Psynergy that he preferred to handle with sheer instinct.  If what he had heard Ivan describe as was at all the way Mars Adepts did this sort of thing –if they even could do it- then Garet was supposed to shift his mind out of his head or something.  Be the magma, probably.  He could feel the heat radiating off it, but there was no extra level of understanding, no sudden burst of the lava becoming an extension of his body…

                This was so stupid!  He had better things to do than try to-

                "Whoa!" shouted Ivan.  "Garet, I don't know what you're doing, but it's not working!"  Garet opened his eyes and saw that the ever-deepening lava was now sloshing about angrily, lapping at the edge of the platform they stood on.

                Great.  He had been in whatever Nirvolcana he needed to get to, and now they were moments from being turned into charbroiled jerky-

                One massive wave of molten stone rolled up, skimming the ceiling of the room before falling down toward the Adepts.  "_Deluge!" shouted Mia, suddenly aware of her expanded Mercury Psynergy repertoire.  Water exploded from the end of Clotho's Distaff, rushing against the red tsunami and suddenly cooling it to a calm dark grey.  The Adepts were inside a bubble of igneous rock, and the slowly rising heat coming through suggested that it was in turn being surrounded by more of the molten stuff._

                "Good one, Mia," said Ivan, frozen in terror, but glad he was alive.  "Anyone have a new plan?"

                "If this is such a great path to take, then why didn't we use it to get down here in the first place?" asked Jenna, skeptically.  Guardian looked at her with a surprisingly emotive expression for a Djinni.  He seemed to be questioning her presence.

                "It is… dangerous," he said, darkly.  "Many perils await us on our skyward journey.  This way was not meant for the weak of body, mind, or spirit."

                "If I see any, I'll warn them," Jenna shot back.  Guardian's expression immediately became defensive.  

                "I was not suggesting-" he began, but not fast enough.

                "Guardian, tell me you haven't still got some chivalrous 'women-don't-fight' problem.  I thought we dealt with that a century or two ago," said Justice.

                "No, never, I simply-"

                "All right, you two, stop tormenting Guardian," said Picard, putting an arm between his Sol Djinni and the Valkyrie.  "Let's get up there fast.  I do not like not knowing what has happened up there."

                "How bad could it be?  We're heroes, Picard.  We can handle anything."  They reached a dead end in the oddly bright caverns, and stared expectantly at the blank wall.  "Okay, what happens next?  More singing?"

                "No," Justice replied.  "Actually, I didn't remember this part being blocked off.  If you wouldn't mind…"  Picard started to step forward, but Jenna reached out to hold him back.

                "Uh-uh.  Mine," she stated, grinning.  Jenna faced the wall, took a deep breath, and shouted with a grin "_Nova!"  It was one of Jenna's favourite Psynergies that she rarely got to use, since the Adepts kept Djinn of their own element with them most of the time._

                Mars power focused at a point on the wall for a moment, then exploded in a wave of red and blue flames.  The wall glowed with heat and buckled for a split second, then collapsed.  The dust settled surprisingly quickly, and through the new space the Adepts could see a dark room.  At its centre was a brightly lit circle of white marble set into the floor.  They entered cautiously, and at Guardian's direction, stepped onto the stone.

                "And now?" asked Jenna.

                "I have a very distinct feeling about this, and I am not sure I like it," the Lemurian commented.  A short pillar rose out of the centre of the circle, and two sockets were set into it.  The one nearer to Picard held a pale, opaque green stone, and the other was empty.  "I might have guessed."

                "Good.  Mind telling me what it might have been?"

                "This one," said Picard, tapping the empty socket, "could probably use a Psy Crystal.  Do we have one?"

                "You mean one that won't suck out my brain through my ankles?  No," Jenna answered, grinning slightly.

                "Oh, geez, you people took Psy Crystals through the Psyphon?" asked Justice, cringing.

                "It's not like I could step off the massive sliding shard of rock to put them somewhere for pickup later," Jenna explained, a little testily.

                "But you have gained a great deal of power since we joined you!" pointed out Guardian.  "It should be possible to charge at least one of the gems, I am certain."

                "You really think you've given us that much power?" asked the Mercury Adept.

                "Might as well try.  Be ready to smack the thing if it goes wrong, okay?" asked Jenna.  Picard nodded, and she drew one of the purple stones out of the mythril bag on her belt.  Carefully, Jenna placed it in the socket, then slipped off her glove and tapped it gingerly with one finger.

                "No, wait-" began Justice, too late.

Psynergy flared at Jenna's fingertip, a blazingly bright purple glow as power was transferred from her reserve to the crystal.  It seemed to be filling with light, like pouring water into a glass.  If the expression on her face was anything to go by, the experience wasn't all that enjoyable.

Just when Jenna though she was going to be sucked into it herself, the drain stopped, and she fell backwards onto the marble.  "That was a once in a lifetime thing," she said at last, breathing heavily.  "By which I mean I am never doing it again in this lifetime."

"You should not need to," said Picard, watching what was happening now in the pedestal.

"Yeah, 'cause you're doing the next one, if there is a next one."

"I believe it is ready.  You should get up," said Picard, watching energy flowing through tiny conduits in the stone.  It was not unlike the electrical circuits of a different world and time; Psynergy was coursing through a hundred tiny lines that led out of the purple stone and into the floor.

"What is all this?" asked Jenna, rising to her arms and noticing the lines down the pedestal's sides.  They reached the floor, and energy rippled outward, leaving in its wake a rainbow glow.  "Oh my…  Picard?"

"Yes?"

"We're standing a giant Hover pad, aren't we?"

"I think you have it."

"And the other rock in that pedestal?"

"Looks like a Hover Jade to me."

"_Unleash Wheeze!" cried Sheba, smashing her staff against the Mortacle's shoulder.  She grinned in grim satisfaction as shards went everywhere and the monster's watery essence tinted a venomous purple.  Sheba ran then, and watched as it tried to give chase, weakening with every step until it tripped and shattered completely.  The cursed water spilled across the floor and evaporated._

So far she had felled four of the things, not counting the three stricken by her surprise Flash Bolt, but Sheba was wearing down, and knew that the battles would have to end soon.  Unfortunately, every time the Jupiter Adept took one down, another had time to find her.

"Sheba!" said Infinity, fluttering over the battle.  "I can feel Justice and Guardian somewhere nearby!  Picard and Jenna must be getting close!"

"Good.  I could use some help," she grunted, blocking a hammering swing.  One of the many random icicles that stuck out from the creature got past her anyway, and scratched across her face.  Sheba recoiled, falling backwards onto the floor, but when the Mortacle snapped its hand off at the wrist and hurled at it her like the first, she was ready, and rolled away quickly.

Unfortunately, the creatures of Sol Lighthouse in particular had a good grasp of strategy –not to the degree of some rarer and eviller beasts, but greater than many- and the Mortacles had been saving a few tricks for the last.  From the bubbling wound that was once the monster's wrist came a torrential jet of foam that blasted Sheba off her feet and propelled her back into the wall.

Sheba found herself pinned by the focused stream, and for that matter, she was having difficulty finding air to breathe.  It was like the time she fell off Picard's ship during a storm, water everywhere, surrounding her until she couldn't hold her breath any more…

At that moment Jenna stumbled through the lower door, the one beneath the ledge that Sheba had watched from not so long earlier.  She fell to her knees, still waving from side to side, with a look that said she never wanted to do again what she had just been forced to do.  Picard entered following her, looking unaffected by the ordeal.

"Stay away," Jenna warned him, holding her head in one hand and warding the Mercury Adept off with the other.  "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Certainly the fastest upward journey I've ever experienced.  I wonder if it was meant to- Sheba!"  Picard caught sight of the trapped girl and rushed the Mortacle that had her pinned, swinging his great sword around in a wickedly fast arc and cutting through the ice armor.  Completely chopped through, the Mortacle's attack halted, and it collapsed in a few pieces.

Sheba spluttered for a moment, but once she got a few good lungfuls of air and wiped the water out of her eyes, she saw who had saved her, and nodded in thankful acknowledgement.  "Look out," she gasped a moment later.  "There are plenty more out there somewhere."

"We should meet them head on!" stated Guardian.

"You always say that," Jenna pointed out, who had evidently decided that feeling ill was a waste of her time right now.

"This time he has a good reason.  Now let's go," said Infinity.  "Felix, Garet, Ivan, and Mia are still ahead of us, but we should be able to catch up if we take the right path-"

"I really didn't like the way you listed four people there," said Jenna.  "Very intentionally, too.  Where's Isaac?  Was he hurt?"

"Oh, gods…" said Sheba, and looked as though she was going to cry.

"Sheba, what's wrong?" asked Jenna, kneeling beside her friend.  Sheba didn't break down like this, hadn't in over a year, since they left Venus Lighthouse.  Jenna didn't want to think about what could have happened, but it was becoming clear to her already.  "…What's happened to Isaac?"

"Lycoris," Sheba sobbed.  "Lycoris killed him…"

"No," Jenna hissed.  Picard breathed a few words of old Lemurian, half curses and half prayers to the spirits for just about everything and anything good.

"She did.  I saw it happen.  I mean, Blitz saw it, and so-"

"It's…"  Jenna had started to say it was okay, but it wasn't, not any more.  It might never be.

"They're coming," called Spring, who had been standing guard, since no one else seemed interested.  He had been aiding healers for centuries, and had learned to handle death better than most.  The loss of Isaac hurt him, but he was practical, and wasn't likely to change.  "Big frosty things again."

Sheba leapt to her feet with a speed and ferocity that startled Jenna, but she and Picard followed the Jupiter Adept anyway, down the hallway and into a cluster of Mortacles.  At least eight, too many to deal with in the short time they knew they had.

The icicle-coated creatures raised their arms in unison, and Psynergy began to gather around them.  It swirled through the air and tied together like strands of fabric.  Jenna sensed the power gathering and remembered feeling something like it before.

"I do so hate Freeze Prism," she growled.

_We can't stop them all before they cast, Picard realised._

_Then perhaps it is time you gave in and used our powers?  It was Guardian's voice, and he sounded irritated.  _You do recall what I told you earlier.__

Picard thought for a second, one of the last ones they had, and remembered.  "_Unleash Guardian!_"  The glowing spirit of a Sol Djinni soared from him, circling once and exploding in a shower of sparks, each one in the shape of a tiny Psynergy seal.  The gathering power wavered, fractured, and flew away into the ether.  The Mortacles, faced with three Adepts that were inexplicably not being crushed under tremendous hail, looked up at their still-raised arms.

                "_Unleash Infinity!"  Sheba's Sol Djinni followed up immediately, appearing and then flashing out of existence a moment later.  The Lighthouse wavered and faded around them all, replaced with the incredible void of space.  Stars swirled and soared past, the only things in all the void.  All motion halted, and after a second's pause they blasted away into the distance, shrinking into mere points and then vanishing entirely._

                The Lighthouse snapped back into existence around them, or maybe they snapped back into it, and golden light flashed one more time.  The Mortacles fell backwards, collapsing to the floor and not moving.

                "Are they dead?" asked Picard, warily.

                "No," Sheba replied.  "Just stunned.  Very, very stunned.  We should keep going."

                She went ahead, past the chipped monsters, and Picard followed, but when he looked back, Jenna was still standing there, looking at the helpless Mortacles.  "Let's go, Jenna."  She looked up, startled from her thoughts by the Lemurian's accented voice.  "There's no reason to stay."

                She nodded, for a moment, then drew her Tisiphone Edge and swung it in a great arc, slicing the air straight down to the Mortacle's head.  Picard cringed, but when he looked again, he saw that she had just cut off the point of an icicle.  Jenna leaned over into unseeing eyes.

                "Remember that," she muttered, and ran to catch up with the others.

                "Are you sure this will work?"

                "No."

                "Go for it."

                Mia raised Clotho's Distaff like a spear over her shoulder, prepared to jab at the right time.  Felix placed his hand on the rough new stone of  the dome, ignoring the intense heat from the other side, and called up as little Psynergy as he could.  "_Quake!"  The stone shook and cracked, and the weaker parts started glowing red.  Mia thrust the end of the staff into one of these points and straight through the stone._

                "_Glacier!"  The air was suddenly much colder, and Mia's breath became visible as she channelled Mercury Psynergy through to the other side.  Slowly, far too slow for her liking, all the magma that filled the room was turned to cool stone.  "It's done," she reported._

                Felix gripped the straps of his gauntlet, making sure it was still solidly attached (he liked his bones the way they were, in the right number of pieces) and strong.  Then he drew back and smashed it into the stone, calling out "_Quake Sphere!_"  The rock shook again, far more violently, and Felix struck again, casting the Psynergy until fractures ran all through the stone and sand started seeping in from above.

                "That's probably the best we're going to get," said Ivan, and grabbed Felix's free hand.  

Garet and Mia joined in the chain, so that when Felix spoke "_Sand!_" and walked into the stone, they followed without any ill effects, except that Ivan always hated doing this and tended to say so afterwards, over and over again.

With whatever extra sense he gained while doing this, Felix led them right to the door, and then straight through it.  He and Ivan –the ones most drained by walking through rocks- fell to their knees.  This room was smaller than most, darker, and the most decorated.  

It was circular, and at four equally distant points there were stained glass windows showing events of long ago.  One showed thirteen Adepts standing alone on a battlefield, facing a shadowy, indistinct army riding below dark stormclouds.  Another was Mount Aleph, fire exploding from its top.  The third had to be Lemuria, but the city was a very different place from what the Adepts remembered of it.  People thronged in the streets and the sun shone brightly overhead, unmasked by fog.  The last was Sol Lighthouse, standing in a valley of deep green and radiating light from its beacon.

"Amazing…" whispered Mia, running her fingers along the contours of the windows.

"This is the eruption of Mount Aleph," said Garet, staring at another.  "But this Lighthouse has been here for centuries, hasn't it?  How could they know?"

"Maybe it was just a warning sort of thing.  This one shows the land around the Lighthouse as bright and lively as the rest of Weyard, maybe even more.  What could have happened to make it so bleak?" wondered Mia.  She shook her head and turned to the others.  "Felix, Ivan, let's figure out what's next."

"I betcha this has something to do with it," said Garet, sounding a little amused.  He was standing on an image of a flaming meteor drawn into the floor, and a column of red light had sprung up around him.

"Thor, Boreas, and Judgment," said Ivan, pointing to the other three.  "Pretty clear to me.  Let's go."  He stepped onto the likeness of Thor, and a purple glow radiated from it.  Mia did likewise, and her step was marked by blue light, but before Felix could step forward, a part of the wall opened and Picard came through with Guardian at his side.

"I told you it was a shortcut," said the Djinni victoriously.

"Felix!" said Jenna, happy to see that her brother was still safe.

"Good to see you safe, Jenna.  This is it.  Stand over there with lo- …with Garet," Felix ordered, just catching himself.  He managed not to look at Mia.  "Picard, you too."  Felix stepped ahead, only realising as his foot touched the stone that he had forgotten Sheba.  Then green light rushed around him, and the room faded.

At the Aerie of Sol Lighthouse, four points in the golden stone flared with colour, and six Adepts rose out of them.  The glow faded, and they saw the Lighthouse Well nearby, a bright yellow beacon still shining above it.  "We're not too late," said Felix, thankfully.

"Not this time," Mia added, very quietly.  They stood for a moment in silence, looking out at the grey earth around them and the incredible beauty of the Sol beacon.  It was still, except for the occasional breeze.

On the other side of the Aerie, four more points burned with the colours of the elements, and ghostly glows rose from them.  They shot together in the middle of the columns, and Orian shook his arms out, a grim expression of determination on his face.

"Orian," called Felix.  "You don't want to do this."

"Not especially," the Sol Adept agreed.  "But it seems to be necessary.  _Wretched Wave!"  An intense wall of light exploded from his hand, smashing the Adepts down and blasting them close to the edge.  They tried to stand, but none could find the strength.  "Don't try again," he said, almost sadly._

Ivan couldn't even keep a solid grip on his staff, but he noticed as he lay there that the purple light he had emerged from hadn't quite faded.  It was flickering, like it was trying to vanish, but something was fighting back.  Orian moved toward the Well; the light was too distant and faint for him to notice.

But the Adepts certainly noticed when it flared to full intensity and Sheba appeared, grumbling "No one leaves me behind."  She saw Orian, still unaware of her presence, and realised why Isaac had sent her ahead.  This moment was it, though how he could have even imagined its importance, she didn't know.

"Go get him," whispered Ivan.

"_Earth and Wind Power Rise!" called Sheba, and Orian turned at the unexpected cry.  The beacon burned brighter, but the sky above the Jupiter Adept darkened.  All of Isaac's Venus Djinn, bolstered by her own Jupiter allies.  The summon that could be Orian's bane.  "__Sheba__ Summons Charon!"_

The darkness above turned to blood red, and the spirit ferryman appeared in the distant sky, a skeletal thing wrapped in a ragged robe.  Dark power gathered and burned with incredible fury, and was set loose, a wave raging across the barren ground.  It climbed the Lighthouse Wall and leapt over it, shaping into a violet dragon's head that dove upon Orian with determined satisfaction.

The wind blew across the silent Aerie.  Orian collapsed, and Felix wondered if it was over.

**[Author's Notes Continued]**  Almost, Felix, almost.  One chapter to go.


	8. A Hundred Thousand Alchemies

**Shining In The Darkness**

**A Tale of Sol and Luna**

**Chapter Eight: A Hundred Thousand Alchemies**

                "Got him," said Garet, with a tired satisfaction, seeing Orian lying still on the surface of the Aerie.  He wasn't dead, of course, Charon couldn't kill humans.  "Perfect timing, Sheba."

                "Thanks," she said, turning around.  "I'll see if I can… where's Ivan?"

                "Any time one of you wants to help out is fine with me.  I'll just hang on until then, huh?"

                Sheba ran toward the place his voice was coming from, at the Lighthouse's edge.  A few fingers held onto the edge.  She leapt over Garet and Picard, landed lightly, and made the mistake of looking down.  "Oh, gods, this is embarrassing.  No Jupiter Adept should have vertigo," she said queasily, turning away.

                "I may develop it for about thirty seconds while I'm falling if you don't help!"  Sheba flung out an arm and Ivan was launched over the edge by a sudden updraft, crashing down in front of her.  The impact knocked the air out of his lungs, but he managed to draw enough in to thank her.

                "Sheba, in the plated pocket on my right shoulder…" said Felix, weakly.  She opened the oddly protected pouch, and inside Sheba found a vial filled with an intensely verdant substance.  She pressed the lever on top and a cloud fountained up, settling over the fallen Adepts and sparkling brightly.

                "Mist potion," Jenna realised as she gained the strength to move again.  "You're prepared for just about everything, aren't you, brother?"

                "I actually once built a device for lighting a fire on a rainy night with cold wind coming from the north and being pestered by up to seventeen bats," the Venus Adept said, perhaps serious, perhaps not, but definitely bragging to the others.

                "Yeah, you were just full of fun before Saturos and Menardi dragged you off.  I always thought it spoke well of their endurance that they never killed you," Jenna replied.

                "This isn't the time to be joking," said Garet, rather sharply.  The siblings looked at him, a little embarrassed, wishing they had kept quiet.  Humour seemed hollow at a time like this.  There should have been eight of them now standing at the Aerie.  Garet nodded toward the prone form of Orian.  "Let's deal with Sol's greatest mistake."

                "What do you mean, 'deal'?" asked Ivan.  "You don't-"

                "He does," Mia interjected, angrily.  "Garet, think for a second.  You know that killing Orian won't solve anything."

                "It just might stop him from killing us if he gets the chance to get back up again," Garet retorted.  "He wasn't exactly broken up about blasting us just now, was he?  I know we said Lycoris was the main threat, but that doesn't make him safe!"

                "Use your head, Garet!  You can't just go around killing all the bad guys!  It doesn't work!"

                Felix slipped away from the sparking argument and went to Orian, who was lying facedown on the tile, staring at the soft glow with unseeing eyes.  He waited, sure that the downed Adept wasn't quite as broken as he appeared.  After a moment, he blinked.  Felix grinned, just slightly.

                "You really did turn your back too soon," the Venus Adept commented.  

                "See the goal, not the obstacles," said Orian, though he barely moved.  "It's all about the goal.  The rest is just background."  Felix's brow furrowed- he vaguely remembered those words.  Orian smiled.  "You said that, at Shaman Village.  Just entering Trial Road.  It's become a popular saying among those who appreciate you."

                "That's right," Felix realised.  "How did you know?"

                "I know a great deal about you.  Felix the Slayer.  Defender of Venus, just like Isaac.  But everyone pays attention to him.  You're too much of a loner to be really popular.  …I really would enjoy being turned over a bit," said Orian, hopefully.  Felix's expression turned harder.  "No, I don't expect you to trust me.  Psynergy, for all I care.  I'd just like not to be pressed against the stone.  It makes it difficult to talk."

                Felix looked dissatisfied for a moment, but knelt anyway, and turned Orian onto his back.  "That could have been a stupid move, but somehow I don't think you're the type."  The boy turned his head, just slightly, to see his right hand.  The fingertips were twitching.

                "Good.  Charon hasn't broken me for good, I think.  That was an impressive tactic, you know.  Charon is very close to Luna Psynergy.  He's one of the few forces that can actually harm me."

                Felix wasn't in the mood for the casual, pointless conversation Orian seemed to be trying for.  "Isaac may be the popular one everywhere else, but he was still my friend.  A friend to all of us.  And your sister killed him while we were trying to race you up here.  So mind telling me why I should listen to you ramble instead of exacting a bit of proxy vengeance?"

                "Oh, very well."  The Sol Adept smiled, and with some interest Felix saw that it was real.  Lycoris had smiled occasionally, in a predatory manner that not even Karst could manage, but Orian looked sincere.  Something in the eyes, the silvery grey, that was genuinely peaceful.  "Lycoris and I come from a village in the northwestern part of Angara, further than Bilibin.  You've probably never been there, it's in the thick forest between a few mountains.  We weren't Adepts, you know.  At least, I don't think we were.  One night we went out into the forest, and found a Psy Crystal.  We didn't know what it was, I think."

                "Why do you keep saying that?" asked Felix.  He glanced back at the Adepts.  To his slight surprise, Garet was still arguing with the rest of them, and no one seemed to have noticed yet that Felix was gone.

                "Because I don't really remember much before that night.  A few things, but every image is patchy, every sound is half-forgotten…  Perhaps we gained Psynergy that night, perhaps we were simply strengthened.  But since then we have wandered Weyard, seeing everything for the first time.  It is a wide and wondrous place, you know.  But filled with suffering, so much pain…"  Orian shut his eyes, and Felix wondered what memory was running through his mind.

                "It's not all bad," said Felix, wishing this were over and he could be back in Vale.  Some people got tired of home, and wanted to explore.  Felix felt as though his home was the one place he didn't really know.

                "But it shouldn't be like this.  That's what we decided, Lycoris and I.  We realised that we were unique, the only Adepts of Luna and Sol in the entire world, and that we had greater power than anyone.  We began searching for a something, a decisive edge to use if anyone decided to resist us."

                "A war of conquest.  Great plan," muttered Felix, sitting down on the steps to the Well.

                "There are cities on this world ruled by men who care nothing for their people!" snapped Orian, jerking his head up.  "And there are people who can barely survive, lacking even food and homes!"  The Sol Adept's sudden rage startled Felix, but he was certain that if Orian could move more than his neck, he already would have.  He settled down slightly, leaning back and staring at the black, starry sky.  "I won't stand by and let that be."

                "You might have considered other options," Felix suggested, offhandedly.

                "People who don't care about anyone else aren't going to listen to rational debate.  But they will listen to one who controls the power of the four elements, who can call up storms, fires, earthquakes and tides!  It wouldn't take much, but we needed to be safe.  We couldn't trust anyone but ourselves, we knew.  It had to be us, only us.  We roamed the lands, speaking to many people, learning the tales of Weyard.  And everywhere we went, we heard of the great Defenders of the Elements.

                "The story was always a little different, being passed from person to person, but we noticed the things that were consistent, things that made sense.  The quest of Isaac and Garet of Vale, and Ivan, the mysterious child who read minds, and Mia, one of the last of the Imilian healers.  But those who knew of Saturos and Menardi also spoke of a few others.  Jenna, held hostage by the two Proxans, and her distant, brooding brother, Felix, who followed the others but acted on his own wishes."

                "I guess that's pretty accurate," said Felix, wishing people would stop referring to him as brooding.  It made him sound like a slightly outgoing hermit, or a serial killer who hadn't snapped yet.

                "And of course Sheba.  And then much later, when we happened to pass through Madra, we heard about Picard.  Lycoris… developed sort of an obsession with Isaac, though, the more tales we were told.  He seemed to be the ultimate hero, never failing, fighting only for what he believed to be right.  It was a rather different result than what her own beliefs would have predicted for an altruist.  She swore to find him one day, and see what made him so special."

                Felix, who had almost been feeling relaxed, resting in the light of the Sol Lighthouse beacon, snapped his head around and almost snarled outright.  "She got what she wanted, then, didn't she?" he growled, and Orian looked away.  "For that matter, I seem to recall that you just tried to kill us, so how about you get to the-"

                "Didn't you pay any attention?  I immobilised you, sapped your strength.  I wouldn't have killed you.  Once I had the Star, there would be no need to fight," Orian replied, almost angrily.

                "Then maybe you haven't been paying attention.  Isaac wasn't the only one of us who stood for what he believed in, who wouldn't back down.  Even if you got the Star, we'd have fought," Felix assured him coldly.  His own anger at the moment was coming mostly from the memory of the last conversation between himself and Isaac, before he went into the final battle at Mars Lighthouse.

                _"I don't really understand it all.  You're the hero."_

_                "You've got more on your side than you might guess, Felix.  You do have love, even you don't quite see how it works yet, and know who you are, what you believe in.  So be the hero, or whatever it is that you want.  You don't need anything else."_

_                "But I can't do this!  I'm not strong enough-"_

_                "This is your fight, Felix, not mine.  Mine was back at Venus Lighthouse, and I felt the same way you do now.  Don't worry.  You'll do what you have to, when you see it."_

_                "And you?"_

_                "I have somewhere to be, and I'm already late.  I'll see you when this is all over."_

                "You'd have died," Orian said, a little disbelieving.

                "Well then, I guess you're not as well-versed in Elemental-Defender information as you thought.  Certain doom hasn't stopped us before," Felix reminded him.

                "Lycoris was insane about finding Isaac-"

                "Bad news, kid, but your sister's insane all over.  Fully stocked in crazy."

                "-But you were always my favourite, you know.  I don't really see the point of the perfect hero.  I like real people," Orian continued.

                "Ideally as your minions," Felix muttered, rising to his feet.

                "It's actually hard to believe that I'm actually here talking to you.  Felix the Slayer!  I've heard it said that you walked the ropes of the Kandorean Temple blindfolded while being attacked by bats-"

                "If you really thought I was so impressive, I doubt you'd be doing what you're doing," said Felix.

                "Which one of you is underselling Felix?" asked Picard, walking almost leisurely over to them.

                "Him," said Orian, and twitched a finger Felix's way.

                "I should have expected as much," the Mercury Adept continued.

                "You know, he did try to take over the world.  And it's indirectly his fault that Isaac is dead."

                "Lemurians have never really taken an interest in the concept of vengeance."

                "They're still fighting?" asked Felix, glancing back at the other Adepts.

                "I noticed you over here and asked Jenna to prolong things a bit."

                "You're not always right, you know.  Just because you're heroes.  Even Isaac fought Saturos and Menardi, and their goal was to rescue the world," Orian pointed out, straining his neck to see the Adepts standing at his feet.

                "The goal of Saturos and Menardi was _supposed_ to be the salvation of the planet.  That wasn't how it ended up.  They went power mad," Picard replied, calmly.

                "And how do you think your sister is going to handle this, Orian?  Even if she still believes in all your noble goals right now.  Do you think Lycoris would hold onto all of that when she had the Sol Star's power in her control?" asked Felix, thinking frantically, hoping that if he didn't stop talking, he might hit on something persuasive.  "You know you can't trust her.  She's not really interested in doing good anymore, is she?  Even if that's how you started.  Lycoris wants the power, and then she'll be just like she is now, but too strong."  A sudden flash of inspiration struck him.  "She was the one who opened the seal on Sol Lighthouse, wasn't she?  Luna can break even Sol's power.  You couldn't stop her, not if she got the Sol Star.  She could even stop you."

Orian was silent for a moment, and Felix dared to hope that he had gotten through, that Orian might at least stand aside, if not help them stop Lycoris, who wouldn't be slowed down much longer by the labyrinth.  She was probably blasting a trail of destruction to the top right now.

                "No," he said, at last, and a thrill of success ran through the Venus Adept.  But Orian went on.  "No, that won't happen.  I'll remind her of what it's all about.  I'll keep Lycoris from going out of control.  Force isn't the solution.  She'll listen to me.  We'll make it all right."  Felix groaned.  Orian's plan sounded good, flawless, like a utopia, if you had the common sense and world experience of a stunned sheep.

                "Perhaps you would have.  But that is not really the issue now.  You are already quite defeated," Picard pointed out, tactfully.  "No matter your beliefs or choices, you can't lift a finger."

                "True," Orian admitted, looking away.  "But I'll still get the Star, and I _will_ win this battle."

                "Care to explain how?  Start with the masterful strategy that'll get you on your feet," said Felix.

                Orian looked past both of the Adepts.  "She'll help me."

                Felix and Picard moved before Orian had even closed his mouth on the last syllable.  Both drew their swords and spun around into guarding stances, each one catching a dark-glowing blade of Psynergy.  Lycoris smiled and twirled the daggers between her fingers before coming in low on each side, stabbing viciously.  They leapt back, and Felix chanced a glance toward the others, fearful of what she might have done before attacking them.

                Not much to worry about, since taking down five Adepts silently was about as easy as cutting through a tree with a cotton scarf.  The silent part had apparently been managed, since Jenna appeared to be screaming furiously but soundlessly, and the others were apparently muted too.  They had been stuck to the spot as well, but only Garet and Sheba had been hit badly, and Mia was already at work on the scorched gashes.  At the same time, several scorched divots in the Aerie's surface closed over like water.

                "If Isaac couldn't take me on, even both of you at once aren't going to do much good," Lycoris pointed out, looking rather amused.  She gestured over her shoulder.  "See to your friends.  Then we can do this properly."  Felix and Picard looked at each other, and with a nod from his ally, Felix ran for the other Adepts.

                "I think it is about time this was ended," Picard said in a low tone.

                "Going to stick around, are you?  Well, it's a shame.  I understand Lemurians are supposed to live for centuries," the Luna Adept replied with a dark laugh.  Her long, spiky hair rose up as though the wind were blowing from below, and with a flourish she cast a charge of Luna Psynergy at Picard.

                She hadn't expected the work of the greatest blacksmith on Weyard, though.  Picard preferred the weight of his great sword, but at times like these, watching the black bolt ricochet off his blade, he truly enjoyed having his Mythril Blade.  And, of course, he had never seen weapon Psynergy he liked more.

                "Going to try again?  I can reflect all day, if you'd like," Picard offered with a grin that looked more confident than he felt, the same way Prox was colder than Magma Rock.  As he expected, Lycoris merged the two violet-black daggers into a Psynergy sword, and dashed at him, wanting nothing more than to slash that smile from his face.

                Lemurian swordfighting isn't a commonly known art, having rarely been taught to anyone outside the enclosed city, ever since the veil of mist was formed.  But it was one worth seeing, especially against a nimble opponent, and the other Adepts, in the midst of recovering, took a few seconds just to watch the spectacle.

                Lycoris' attacks were continuous, never wasting a moment between slice and thrust, but she never seemed to reach flesh, and Picard's sword whipped around her guard with unreal efficiency.  Every time he struck at Lycoris, she tried to hit an open space, but the Lemurians' art was well-crafted, and every motion was both attack and defence.

                Picard struck at last, an unexpected stab that caught Lycoris in the leg.  She bit down on any sound, but the Psynergy keeping the others silent and immobile broke and faded.

                "At last," gasped Garet.  "Jenna, are you okay?"

                "I'm fine, I'm agile.  You're the massive lunk who prefers to take hits instead of dodge."

                "Glad to hear it," he replied, knowing she was only joking.  He reached out and grabbed her hand for a moment, squeezing it to bolster his own courage.  "Ready to take them?"

                "Been waiting for you," she answered, and the Mars Adepts rushed toward Lycoris together.

                The Luna Adept saw them coming, and looked at her brother, still recovering.  She waved a hand, and a column of shadows flashed onto him.  "Help me out here, would you, dear brother?"

                "It's about time you got around to me," Orian answered, gratefully, stretching his stiff arms.  Garet and Jenna were only a few steps from Picard's side when he cast Psynergy.  "_Banishing Burn!_"  It was another form of the Psynergy he had used in their second encounter, but rather than an all-encompassing scorching heat, this was a concentrated blast that exploded up in front of Jenna, a rising wall of white fire that even she would not dare to cross.

                "Change of plans?" said Garet, skidding to a halt and looking toward Orian.

                "I'm good with that," Jenna agreed.

                Orian wasn't a warrior by any means, preferring not to use any sort of physical weaponry, but that didn't make him less dangerous, as they already knew.  A cry of "_Wrathful Wave!_" sent a ripple in space hurtling towards the Mars Adepts.  They dove apart, and it ground into the floor, leaving not a mark but sending echoes down into the foundations of the Lighthouse.

                Jenna enjoyed this sort of battle.  She didn't have to worry about cutting edges and all those other gory elements of combat, except as they applied to her own attacks.  Psynergy was the only threat, and when facing a goal, obstacles, no matter how dangerous, were almost fun to work around.  As if proving her point, these thoughts had been passing through her head as she ducked under another wave, twisted around a third, cleared a jet of white flame, and made a near-perfect strike, though Orian spun quickly enough that it only bit into his arm.

                "Sorry we're late," said Ivan, appearing beside them with Lachesis' Rule at the ready.  "I wanted to make sure Sheba was okay."

                "He's just jealous because he doesn't have healing Psynergy," Sheba added, grinning.

                "You really don't understand, I suppose.  Otherwise you'd have given up by now," said Orian, drawing a hand over the wound and sealing it.  "I'm a Sol Adept.  The power of Alchemy, the binding of all the lesser elements."  Lights flashed around him as Orian called up a fraction of the considerable power he had in this place.

                "So we've heard, but so far-" began Garet.

                "I can make the flames follow tides."  Orian gestured and threw a blanket of fire over the Adepts.  It washed past them in a burst of scorching intense heat, but set nothing more ablaze, and spread on impact with the floor until it disintegrated, like water splashing from a height.  "Or waves that flare and spark," he continued, calling up a sudden torrent that flickered like a bonfire as it moved.  The gathered Adepts were taken off their feet by the assault, but a series of falling clay spires crashed into its path.             

"Do you do card tricks, too?" asked Felix, looking unimpressed.

"Winds as solid as stone," Orian went on, smashing Felix to the Aerie's smooth golden surface with an unseen gust.  He raised his arms, and boulders rose from the ground far below.  "And earth as fluid and devastating as a hurricane."  The rocks flew together and merged, melting and twisting into a madly whirling spiral that hurtled among the others with wickedly damaging results.

"Some assistance would be greatly appreciated!" shouted Picard, who was tiring quickly.  The only point the Lemurians hadn't considered with their techniques was that they weren't easy to sustain.  This had never been a problem in the past, as most opponents surrendered or were cut down with admirable alacrity, but Lycoris moved inhumanly.  She didn't have fancy tactics, simply the ability to see the one least-defended point and get her blade there as fast as possible.

Mia had been hanging back, much drained after chilling the magma and then healing Garet and Sheba, but she knew she couldn't wait any longer.  Lycoris struck once, a jarring blow that nearly shook the Mythril Blade from Picard's grasp.

"_Unleash Saviour!_" shouted Mia, and the spirit appeared over her in a shower of sparks.  Lycoris didn't notice Mia's actions, but she did see the pulse of light in Picard's golden eyes, and it worried her.  The Luna Adept lashed out, a jarring blow that nearly shook the Mythril Blade out of his hands.  Given a moment's time, Lycoris reached out and placed a hand on Picard's chest.

"_Stillborn_," she hissed, and with a twinge of power, stopped the Lemurian's heart.  Picard choked for a moment, then staggered back.  Lycoris pressed the assault, slashing him twice more before he collapsed.  She was just about to join Orian in dealing with the rest of them when a flicker of light came from Picard.  "That's never something you want to see from the corpse of an enemy," she muttered.

"He's not dead yet," said Mia defiantly from behind Lycoris.

                "No one could revive him that fast.  He went from good to dead in a second," Lycoris snapped, turning to face Mia.  "I know the limitations of your powers, you couldn't be that fast."

                "Maybe the old ones," the Mercury Adept replied.  Saviour flared brightly over Picard, and tiny rays of light ran along his injuries, closing them, and colour returned to his deathly pale face.  It was true that all the 'revival' Psynergies, those that could restore someone with a mortal wound, usually had only a short time to be used.  And, since she could be unleashed before the blow was struck, that was Saviour's greatest advantage.

                "What the hell is that?!" demanded Lycoris when Saviour made her entrance.

                "By the Spirits," whispered Orian, seeing the events from further away.  "A Sol Djinni."

                "You like it?" called Felix, pleasantly.  Lycoris turned and glared at him.  "Wanna see another?  _Unleash Aeon!"  Realising that the secret of the Sol Djinn was gone, but they still had a few moments of surprise, Felix wasted no time, and threw his sword at the Luna Adept.  Aeon's power guided it through the air on a perfect course, glowing like a comet until it hit._

                The point drove into Lycoris' abdomen, too far to the side for a lethal strike, but still dropping her to the floor with a cry of pain as power of all the elements discharged.  Still cringing in pain, Lycoris pulled Excalibur from her side and flung the blade away, over the edge.  Ivan snapped out a hand and charged Jupiter power in his palm, catching the sword in a magnetic grip and drawing it back into his hand.

                "This is not the time to be throwing sacred weaponry about," he said, throwing it back to Felix.

                Picard, now fully restored from Lycoris' attacks, got to his feet.  "Thanks for the help," he said, bowing his head to Mia with a smile.  "Shall we?"

                Mia shook her head, catching Lycoris' furious gaze.  "No.  I'll handle her for now.  Help the others- Orian's only going to get stronger as long as he's near the beacon."  Picard hesitated, seeing the logic, but also knowing why Mia was offering to take his place.  He agreed after a moment's thought, resolving to keep an eye on them both.

                "You think you can take me, do you?  You think that you're going to do better than your boyfriend?" asked Lycoris, dark Psynergy seeping in between the fingers of the hand over her wound.

                "You think you can use some pathetic taunts to distract me?" asked Mia in return.

                "It worked on him."

                "Lycoris, I wouldn't dare get angry here.  Nothing you say is going to make me lose focus."

                "And why's that?"

                "I'm too interested in seeing you beaten into a deep grave."

                "Going to kill me, little healer girl?  You don't seem the type."

                Mia raised a hand and called Saviour back into her, rising to Disciple class again.  "I'm a foot taller and a few years older than you.  And it seems to me that if you don't believe I'd do it, that's just another point in my favour.  Now get up."

                "Another one," muttered Orian as Picard ran to the others, but they were still trying to deal with the stone twister.  "I feel that this is a less-than-equal division of forces."

                "This would be a very good time for that new Psynergy I mentioned a few dozen times," Infinity pointed out.  "Exactly this situation, in fact, would be good timing.  I mean, it would have been good with the Mortacles down below, or any number of other times, but hey, if you want to try something else-"

                "Okay!" said Sheba, ducking as a chip flew off the spinning rock funnel.  She looked into her mind, searching for the new power that Infinity kept bringing up.  There didn't seem to be anything unusual, except for the strangest feeling buried deeper down.  It was familiar, somehow, a kind of Psynergy she had used once before.  Something about it, the colour or the tone of the thought, she had seen before…

                Mia whipped Clotho's Distaff into line, stopping Lycoris' slash, and flipped it around, grazing the Luna Adept's jaw.  Lycoris withdrew, and Mia planted the staff's end on the Aerie's surface, vaulting around it and kicking the girl in the stomach.  She staggered under the blow, but came back on the offensive quickly with short jabs that were too quick to parry.  It was impossible to stop them all, and after only a moment of two Mia was bleeding from four shallow wounds.  She backed off, drew up power, and released a Glacier.

                Lycoris looked surprised, as though she had forgotten about Psynergy, but still waved a hand at the gathering ice, which turned black and shattered.  Her Psynergy blade whipped around again, clashing several times off Clotho's Distaff.  "You know," said Lycoris to Mia, their weapons locked, "at least Isaac was smart enough to demand no Psynergy used.  You're _really_ doomed now."

                "Not really," Mia growled, her teeth gritted as she fought against the press of Lycoris' weapon.  "I actually know what on Weyard to do with it.  _Ice Missile_!"  From the head of the healer's staff a salvo of ice shards flew, glowing blue and blasting Lycoris away, bleeding.

                "Okay," she seethed in a satanic singsong voice, and black energy crackled all around her.  "_Time_ to _meet_ the _Bitch of _Darkness_!"  Lycoris stalked forward, gathering power, and the shadows seemed to fill with spectres, sights no living person would ever want to see.  Mia stood fast, and focused her own Psynergy.  It might indeed be hopeless, but that had never stopped any of them before.  Nor would it now._

                Garet crouched, bracing for impact, and struck at the earth tornado as it neared him, smashing into it with the Big Bang Gloves.  It fractured slightly, but the pain that shuddered through his knuckles suggested that this wasn't a great strategy.

                It was just like wielding the Tamer's Whip, Sheba realised.  The power to call up minor forces, creatures composed purely of Psynergy.  She opened her eyes, shining bright purple, and saw the stone tornado rushing toward her.  Sheba hoped for a moment that the Psynergy was as strong as it felt, and raised a hand.

                "_Triumphant!"  Smoke coalesced from the clear air, twisting into a vast shape and pluming into long tusks.  The creature was an elephant, armored in ethereal gold with a white cloud instead of legs.  The Triumphant rocketed forward with a deafening trumpet and smashed headlong into the earthen twister, blasting it to shards in a flash of sparks.  Sheba watched the strike with a little awe.  "Okay, so you were right.  That was a good one."_

                "Of course I was right!  I'm a Sol Djinni!" replied Infinity.

                "Right," Sheba agreed, grinning.

                "And you do what again?" asked Ivan, looking to Oracle with a 'care to match that' expression.

                "Resourceful," said Orian, studying the gathered Adepts pensively.  "I hate resourceful enemies.  _Ballistic Burn!_"  Crackling white bolts flew from his hands, trailing small explosions as they ricocheted off the Aerie's perfect surface and, on painful occasions, Adepts.  The Psynergy shots were like combat fireworks, and they never died, always gaining Psynergy from Orian, who drew strength from the beacon's light.

                The Adepts scrambled to avoid the blasts, which weren't aimed but instead caused damage through sheer speed and volume.  Even Ivan, fastest of them all, couldn't see the threats coming until it was too late.  All he needed was an extra second or two…

                "I'm about to be the only thing that gets you through this!" replied Oracle as Ivan dropped to the floor and a bolt burned overhead.  "_Now!"_

                "All right already!  _Unleash Oracle!_"  The Djinni flared brightly, diving into Ivan.  The Jupiter Adept closed his eyes against the glow for a moment, and when he opened them again, Ivan thought he might have double vision.  But after a second or two he realised that the two images were supposed to be there.  The fainter one was always a little bit ahead of the 'real' image.  It was a vision of the near future, a perfect prediction.  

                Ivan had those extra seconds he wanted.  Orian watched in worried amazement as Ivan juked, dodged, and leapt over every blast, once ducking under a shot before it was even reflected his way.  It was hypnotic, almost like a dance, and Orian was so captivated that he was barely starting to move when Lachesis' Rule clipped him in the temple.  As with the various other continuing Psynergies the Adepts had seen Orian and Lycoris use, the moment his concentration broke, the bolts faded.

                "You know, Orian," called Felix, taking a few steps up the stairs to the well, "you got it wrong."

                "What?" he groaned, slowing standing.  Ivan was standing nearby with a confident smile on his face, and Orian took a moment to blast the Jupiter Adept off his feet, back down to the others.  Fortunately for Ivan, Garet caught him before he struck the tiles again.

                "The part about goals and ignoring obstacles.  I didn't mean that the only important thing is the victory, that you don't think about right and wrong if you mean well.  I meant that you can't focus on everything in the way, you have to see the path to take past them.  It's never about the ending," said Felix.

                "He's getting the hang of heroic philosophy, too," Sheba commented, and Jenna nodded.

                "And now what?  You tell me I'm wrong, that how you do things is more important than what you do, and now I'm supposed to go all 'I've seen the error of my ways'?" asked Orian, sarcasm breaking through his usual wall of calm control.  "It's not happening, Felix."

                "You still don't get it," Felix muttered, shaking his head.  "Oh well.  I really didn't expect you to understand."  He looked back at Mia, in midst of Psynergy combat with Lycoris, and then to the Adepts around him.  "Let's go.  And Orian, maybe I can explain it in a little more detail when we're done."

                Golden light exploded up around Orian, and he rose from the ground, surrounded in a vast aura of Psynergy.  The Sol beacon flashed, and a shaft of light shot from its core, illuminating the Sol Adept from behind and casting his face into deep shadow.  "_If you'll excuse me, I have a Star to obtain."  Lightning struck the four sage statues around the Well._

                Sheba gasped, seeming shocked to the centre of her being.  Atropos' Rod started to slip from her hold, though she caught it quickly again.  A fraction of a second later Ivan jerked with surprise as well, but he recovered faster, trying to gain his composure again.  Felix was about to ask if they were okay, if something had gone wrong, but they had to stop Orian, who apparently knew what he was doing.

                "_Fell Wind!" shouted Lycoris, and the air charged with a sickening, decaying power.  _

                "_Deluge!" countered Mia, and a great wave rose from her Psynergy, overwhelming the gust and crushing it beneath the currents, but Lycoris' own blast cut the wave in half, protecting herself and sending Mia rolling to the side.  She leapt up and charged, planting the staff, vaulting over top, and grinning as it smashed into Lycoris' ribs.  The battle raged on._

                Slowly the beacon's light was fading, shrinking down to the Star at its centre.  The great whirling sphere, a storm of light that surrounded it, was dying, even as Orian dodged the attacks of the Adepts.  The quenching of the Lighthouse had been set into motion, and now he was simply stalling them.

                "What do you think?" asked Jenna, and Justice had to think only for a moment.

                "Do it," she decided.

                "_Unleash Justice!"  Golden light burst from Jenna's Tisiphone Edge, several rays that not even Orian could move fast enough to avoid.  He was picked out of the air, but the only thing that could withstand Sol's power was Sol again, and Orian was soon back on his feet.  He raised both hands, not needing words for Psynergy with this much power so nearby.  He simply __asked, and from the glow of each palm a metal prong sprang out, curving wickedly into ridiculously long claws.  _

They broke away, hovering in the air, and with a gesture Orian sent them sweeping at the Adepts.  Ivan and Sheba reacted quickly, she halting it with a dense wall of air, and he melting the blade with a cry of "_Storm Ray!"  The other, however, moved unstoppably toward the others._

                Felix fell as quickly as he could, not fast enough, but Garet reacted to the Djinni's shout in his head and called out.  "_Unleash Seraph!_"  He shut his eyes, heard a crackle of energy, and when he opened them the claw was stuck, clattering off a barrier that flared yellow where the blade was grinding against it.  After a moment, the entire shield pulsed once and was sucked into the metal, which burst into yellow sparks and faded.

                "Sol Djinn," Orian said again, looking annoyed.  The simple fact that Djinn of his own element were siding against him was bothering the boy more than he liked.  At the very least, some of them should have found him, joined him… surely.  "No.  You can't stop me.  And I won't wait any longer.  _Omega Void_."  Orian raised a hand like he was holding an invisible sphere, and with a rush of weakness, the Adept's Psynergy was drawn up into the space.  It shot into the beacon, which was only a metre or so across now, joining the rest of the infinite reservoir.

                "We do have a few other weapons," said Jenna.  "_Unleash Justice!_"  Her blade shone momentarily, then sputtered.  Jenna looked at Justice inquisitively.

                "Actually… you don't.  My attack sort of rides the Psynergy you have.  Fully rested-"

                "Which we haven't been in days," Ivan groaned.

                "-I'm quite powerful," Justice went on, ignoring him.  "But now… now is not so good."

                At last the glowing sphere of the beacon was gone, and only the bright Sol Star remained, hovering above the Well.  Orian turned and smiled, glad to see that after all this time, and these battles with Adepts who would not be defeated, he had won.

                The Star dropped into the dark Well without ceremony.  Down at the cylinder's tapered end, in the room where the Adepts had first encountered Lycoris and Orian, the Well glowed, flashed, and transformed.  The Star landed in an ornate lantern, still glowing brightly and casting strange shadows on the walls.  It swung gently, as though in a light breeze.

                Orian watched it drop out of sight, then turned back to the ready, immovable Adepts, and cursed the thoughtfulness of the Lighthouse's builders again.  "It seems we may have to fight this out after all," he said, wearily.  Orian still had power, of course, far more than any of them, but after all this time, he was weary of combat, and wished mostly for it all to be over.

                Mia and Lycoris fought on.  Mia was exhausted, driven only by determination and a dose of fury, but watching her opponent, she noticed that the light of the beacon had slowly been wearing down Lycoris as well.  Then it went out, to the surprise of them both.

                Lycoris moved almost too fast to be seen, immediately gaining power as the shadows deepened and the night sky became clearer.  Her blade stretched again into a whip, wrapping around Clotho's Distaff and wrenching it from her grip.  It reverted and Lycoris slashed viciously, cutting freely at the unprotected Mercury Adept.  Backing off under the assault, Mia tripped and fell onto her back.  Lycoris drew back, grinned with dark satisfaction, and the blade fell like a guillotine.

                A second into the strike, another blade intercepted it.  One glowing with golden light.  Lycoris looked to her side, staring with disbelief at Isaac.  Mia took up her staff again and smashed the Luna Adept with a jab, sending her rolling onto her back.

                "People talk a lot about being in a state of denial, but they never mention the wonderful benefits it can have for your health," Isaac commented, meeting Lycoris' stare.  He turned to Mia and offered a hand.  "I was supposed to rescue you there, by the way."

                "I don't do the helpless thing," Mia replied, pulling herself to her feet.  She met his gaze, not understanding the cool, blue and above all _living eyes that looked back.  "So.  Just when I'm over you, you come waltzing back into my life."  Mia looked nonplussed by Isaac's reappearance, and he met it with an amused, jokingly disapproving expression._

                They fell into each other's arms, kissing more joyously than Isaac could ever remember.

                "Impossible," breathed Felix.

                "Not impossible," Garet whispered with a grin.  "Just very, very unlikely."

                Lycoris pushed herself to her feet, eyes blazing with rage, which became something more like utter disbelief when Isaac and Mia's embrace did not end, even at the crack of her dark whip.  In fact, without acknowledging her in any other way, Isaac raised one hand and gestured at the Luna Adept.

                "I'm not sure what that means, but it cannot be good," Picard commented.

                "I'm surprised Isaac knows what it means," said Jenna, slightly embarrassed.  Isaac and Mia were the centre of attention, a fact neither of them would have much liked if they had been aware of it, but at that moment everyone else's attention was drawn to the source of a strange sound.  Orian had thrown his head back and was laughing, not like an evil villain or a madman, but like someone who had just heard the funniest joke in the world.  Lycoris was not amused.

                "What are you laughing at?" she demanded of her brother.  Eventually, Orian's fit of mirth subsided, and he looked at his sister, wiping tears from his eyes.

                "You don't get it, do you?  We can't win anymore!  Not you, not me!  He's got us!"  To the Sol Adept, it was as though a great weight had been lifted.  He had failed, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.  No more struggles or fighting.  It was over, and he knew it.

                "You're giving up?" asked Lycoris, certain that such a suggestion would get a strong reaction.

                "Don't give me that, dear sister," Orian replied sarcastically.  "You wouldn't have left him alone if you thought there was any chance he wasn't dead.  There's something at work here that neither of us understands."

                "We're called Djinn," said Halo, sounding annoyed.  He appeared on the left shoulder of Isaac, who was now standing confidently, one arm still around Mia, the other on the handle of the Sol Blade.  "I mean, come on, do we really get that little credit?"

                "Only the Sol Djinn, Halo," Infinity reported.

                "Just about unanimously, I might add," Oracle pointed out.

                "Figures.  No one likes the really powerful heroes," Halo muttered.

                "Are you going to talk or are you going to die?" screeched Lycoris.

                "Well, if I believed those _were my choices… ah, I think I'll choose talk anyway," Halo decided._

                "If you don't mind, I'd like this one."  The voice from nowhere was quickly explained when Harmony phased into existence nearby.  Halo saluted with a wing and a silly expression, and Harmony went on with a smile.  "Halo has a unique power.  He doesn't unleash quite like the rest.  Instead, as long as he remains set to an Adept… no injury, however grave, can kill that Adept.  It would still be possible to, say, decapitate the individual, or incinerate them-"

                "I'll keep that in mind," Lycoris growled.

                "But healing Psynergy still takes effect.  And so, you poor corrupted girl, your opponent stands risen from the dead.  Or rather, the not-quite-dead.  And now I think you and the Holy Knight should finish that duel," Harmony suggested.  Lycoris cracked the Luna Psynergy whip in anticipation.

                "Sounds all right to me.  Nothing can stop my power," she stated.  "Nothing can fill an endless void."  She lashed out at Isaac, who snapped the Sol Blade into line.  The dark cord wrapped around it, and Isaac held his sword high.  Its blade, once more shining like the golden sun, brightened and burned the cruel binding away.  Light flashed down its length, stinging Lycoris as her weapon disintegrated.

                "Light fills the void, Lycoris," Isaac replied.  "And a void is just somewhere for light to be."  

Felix was only half-watching these events.  Something had just reverberated in his mind, an intense feeling that something was going very wrong, and it was happening faster with every moment.  He focused, and the cry reached up from the ground far below, having already travelled across hundreds of miles.  At the edge of the world, all around them, the earth was crumbling.  Sol Lighthouse had to be fired, and quickly.

"Isaac, whatever you're going to do, do it fast!" called Felix.

He turned to the ninth Sol Djinni.  "Are we going to go through with this, then?"

                "My plans haven't failed so far.  I don't see why we should stop now," Harmony answered.  Then she flashed into nothing again, and an extra power charged the eight Defenders.  The Adepts looked at each other, uncertain, but hoping that what was about to happen was something like what they thought was about to happen.

                They spoke as one.  "_Unleash Harmony!_"

                The Adept's weapons flared with power.  In Ivan, Sheba, and Mia's hands the Staves of the Fates pulsed with energy and fired rays of light that centred on the Sol Blade's hilt.  Isaac let go of its handle and the sword hovered in the air.  This was apparently a good plan, because at that moment Garet's Stellar Axe released a massive gout of white-hot fire that engulfed the blade, and it didn't go out until water erupted from Picard's Mythril Blade, tempering the newly forged metal.  

At last the Tisiphone Edge shook in Jenna's grasp and a strange light issued from it, like a golden comet trailing ethereal ribbons.  It dove into the hilt and flashed along the blade's edge.  The sword was encased in a thin column of blinding light, but Isaac stepped forward and reached into it anyway.

The ray broke off, but did not stop shining in Isaac's grip.  It was simply a narrow shaft of light, perhaps six feet long and completely weightless, glowing in his hands.  "A bit long," the Venus Adept commented.  It seemed perfectly natural to him to reach up and break the ray in half, twin swords of alchemical power.

"Orian!" snapped Lycoris, glaring at her brother, who had done nothing so far except grin when Isaac broke the transformed Sol Blade into a pair of weapons.  Orian jolted as though shaken from a light sleep but he sighed in a resigned manner.

"If you insist.  But I don't think we're likely to get anywhere," Orian commented.  Lycoris ignored her brother's attitude and drew her strange and wickedly curved blade, glowed slightly as her preferred pstrengthening powers took effect.  The other Adepts moved a little away from the battle, intending at the very least to deal with some of the more severe injuries, such as Garet's hands, which were probably broken in a few places.  Isaac stood facing Orian and Lycoris, not one of the three moving.

They had no idea what they were facing.

Lycoris moved first, though Orian followed quickly.  Isaac simply stood ready, not even moving until they were a step from striking range.  Lycoris knew he was waiting, no doubt intending to pull the same interrupting strike she had made when this fight began, down below-

Isaac moved as fast as any of them had ever seen, halting Lycoris' slash without moving an inch.  Orian, who carried a short staff simply because his sister insisted they should be prepared, struck simultaneously from the other direction, and wasn't surprised to see the perfect block performed.  Then Isaac, immovable a mountain a moment ago, lifted his feet and began the real battle.

The Venus Adept stepped past the twins and turned, swinging at them both.  Orian was far more prepared to block offensive moves than to make any of his own, and Lycoris managed to deflect the first strike, but Isaac didn't care, he was already moving on to the next part.  To Orian's amusement and Lycoris' further rage, Isaac moved with perfect rhythm, not bothering to spend more than a second or two on each exchange of blows.  They didn't really understand, he reflected, but perhaps they would before it was over.

It was like music in his blood, the Holy Knight decided.  The way he spun and twisted, facing both opponents alternately and guarding even against those attacks he couldn't have really seen coming, it was all a dance.  Lycoris and Orian were just following the steps, and they didn't even see it.  Isaac laughed out loud in the middle of a flying spin, catching a low strike from Orian's staff and slashing the sunlit edge across Lycoris' side.  These blades didn't cut, but at each burst of sparks as the intense light scorched his opponents, he felt that metal would likely have been the soft option.

As enjoyable as this was, Isaac could feel the crumbling of the edges of Weyard, and even the cooling of the fires, the stilling of the winds, the dying waters came through Halo to him.  Isaac turned and faced only Lycoris, striking at her from nearly random angles, every side, battering at her defences.  He at last planted a single kick in her stomach, knocking the Luna Adept to the Aerie's perfect surface.  Orian had no interest in this battle, and Isaac's second blow stopping just an inch from his throat.  The tip of the light blade hovered meaningfully.

"Sit down and consider yourself defeated," Isaac ordered.  Orian hesitated still, loyalty to his sister, however warped, keeping him from agreeing outright.  The end of the ray flared like a prominence on the sun, releasing a small bolt that rolled across Orian and sapped his remaining energy.  The Sol Adept collapsed to the floor with a groan of 'Not again'.

Lycoris was standing already and struck again at Isaac while he wasn't looking, but electricity arced from Sheba's fingertips and her muscles twitched involuntarily, pulling the blade back.

"Well, get on with it," said Mia, looking up from mending Garet's wrists.  She grinned, as did Isaac, and he returned to combat with a nod of thanks to Sheba.  Orian was staying down, and so Isaac brought the twin blades together, merging into a single sword, as real and yet insubstantial as morning sun.

"I suppose it's too much to ask that you use actual weaponry?" growled Lycoris.

"This _is_ actual weaponry, shadow wench," Isaac replied, and twirled in a glowing circle that knocked Lycoris off balance by sheer force, despite her ready guard.  The glow of her pstrengthening increased, but Orian knew the smile that appeared on his sister's face next, and knew that this battle might not be as clearly defined as he had said.

They traded a few more strikes, Isaac never failing to block and often beating Lycoris' own defences, but then she raised a hand to him and spoke darkly.  "_Thunderous Agony!_"  The air warped and blasted into Isaac, tensing every muscle in his body until he felt like a concentrated knot of furious pain, but the power of the Holy Knight resisted it, and he battled on.  The slowing that came of it was enough to make Lycoris at least even with Isaac, but she wasn't satisfied with that.  This was the last battle, they all knew, and she saw no reason not to throw all her power at him.

"_Ravager_ Tide!_"  Lycoris was angered to see that in the proper style of such a powerful weapon, the sunlight sword split the incoming rush of water, diverting it around Isaac perfectly.  "_Chaos Shatter!_"  The tiles beneath Isaac exploded, blasting him off his feet.  Shrapnel cut everywhere, especially at his legs, too numerous and small to deflect._

Isaac landed on his back, bent back further, and leapt to his feet easily, charging straight back into battle.  The flurry of attacks he unleashed were as many as the shards that cut him, showering the Aerie with sparks, and the last strike cleaved Lycoris' kris into halves with a flash.  Lycoris' eyes glowed, another outlet for the power she channelled, and Orian knew what would happen next.  Already they had seen Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus attacks.  Only one of the elements was left.  Lycoris's favourite was one particular Mars Psynergy…

"_Blackest Hellfire!_" she screamed, and even Isaac might not have survived the blast, but the supremely dark flames that exploded from her hand were cut off when Orian crashed into his sister, breaking the bound energy.  "What are you _doing?!" she raged, but the Sol Adept ignored his sister._

Isaac watched, frozen in surprise for a moment, and then saw it.  Everything was spread in front of him, with just one little jump to make, one thing that he had to hope could work.  "I'm sorry, Orian," Isaac whispered, and threw the sword of light.

It turned over in the air twice before reaching them, biting effortlessly into Orian's back.  The sword was obviously guided by Psynergy, nothing else could have driven it so perfectly through his heart, out his chest, and into his sister's.  A column of light erupted below them, twisted and slowly fading, so that while the very air felt unreal, there was a shadow inside the prominence.  Its shape was uncertain, but slowly it became recognizable as a silhouette.

The golden aura exploded into a thousand black and white points.  The Sol Blade, once again in its old shape, clattered to the floor, glowing softly.  And one figure was left standing where Orian and Lycoris had been stricken.  The robed Adept kneeled, though perhaps through weariness rather than choice.

"Good," said Harmony, who sounded just as satisfied as the rest of the Adepts were mystified.  She flapped over to the unknown individual and settled to the tiles.  "As weak as a child," the Sol Djinni went on.  "But as strong as one, too.  It's only fair.  Hello."

The robed one looked up, though long, ragged hair rather obstructed the view of Harmony, who was smiling gently.  The other Adepts were silent, preferring to leave whatever was happening to someone who had any earthly idea _of what was happening._

"I believe we were in the middle of something," Isaac commented to Mia, who was currently enlisting Fizz's help in sealing the many minor injuries Picard had suffered during his duel with Lycoris.

"Heal first, rejoice later," Mia replied, all business, but obviously meaning it as a joke.

"Oh, very well," Isaac relented, and put his own healing abilities to use, but they turned back when the strange figure spoke, quietly and more than a little scared.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Harmony.  I'm a Sol Djinni, and this is the Aerie of Sol Lighthouse."

The girl looked around, and after a moment she looked scared.  "I thought…  I don't know why, but… shouldn't there be a beacon?"

"Yes," Harmony replied.  "But the Star was removed from its place, and so Psynergy is failing."

"No," said the girl.  "That's not right at all."  She held out a hand in the direction of the dark Well and raised it, as though lifting something intangible.  Light flared in its depths and a bright orb rose back to the top, growing into the Sol beacon again.  "Yes.  There should be light here."

"Who are you?" asked Garet, who was probably the least concerned among them.

"I…" began the girl, and she seemed lost.

"Unless I'm gravely mistaken, which I never am, you are Kieran," Harmony said, encouragingly.

"Yes," said Kieran after a moment, staring her reflection in the Aerie's surface.  "Kieran the Dour.  That was what they called me."  She looked up at the cluster of Adepts.  "_I am Kieran the ."  There was silence for a moment._

"So, what, should that mean something to us?" asked Felix.

"What _is_ she?  Orian and Lycoris get wasted and this girl comes out of the… explosion…" said Garet, trailing off as a thought occurred to him.  "You're… you're both of them, aren't you?"

"Close… Garet… very close," Kieran said, pausing to catch his name in a thought.  "Most accurately, those two were parts of me."  She closed her eyes, apparently reconciling some inner conflict as memories collided and fused.  "…Felix… should recall that Orian spoke of a Psy Crystal that he and his sister found one night."  Kieran stopped there again and winced, not enjoying the reunion that was still taking place in her mind.

"Kieran wasn't an Adept before that night, but she should have been.  There was a fundamental breakdown inside her, having been born to perfectly ordinary parents.  She was an Adept equally powered in all the elements, and so they cancelled out, until contact with a massive Psynergy Stone fragment blasted from Mount Aleph created a sudden influx of power."

"She talking about me?"

"Get back in my head, Reflux."

"But there was another effect.  The Psynergy gave her quite a lot of power, but the elements still resisted the union.  Only the considerable energy Kieran had already gained kept her from being split into four.  As it was, the halves took on opposite aspects, Sol and Luna," Harmony went on.

"No," said Kieran.  "Not opposite."  Harmony looked startled at the interjection, and more so by the disagreement.

"What?" she asked, after a moment.

"Sol and Luna are the same, but coming from different directions.  They are both the one element of Alchemy.  Sol is everything, and Luna is nothing, but neither of those are particularly useful.  When you have everything and nothing, it can be quite difficult to get _anything_," said Kieran, and she was smiling now.  "There is Alchemy in all things, a hundred thousand alchemies across the world.  The only difference is in seeing what sort of union something is."

"That's certainly worrying.  I should have known that already," said Harmony.

"Why?" asked Mia.

"She knows everything," Saviour explained.  "Harmony can see every point in time in every place, all in perfect detail.  Which, I understand, can cause quite a headache if you forget where the present is."

"And now I'm told that Sol and Luna are the same element.  I'm going to have to redo half the murals in the Depths now…" Harmony muttered.

"I'll help," said Kieran.

"For that matter, I'm not even certain that we're technically _Sol_ Djinn.  How did I miss this?"

"Wait, wait wait wait wait wait," said Gare, cutting off the worried Djinni.  "So Isaac's pulled off some sort of fusion and Kieran's back together.  But she's still the combination of two peoples, one of whom just tried to kill us –not to mention thought she did kill Isaac- and the other wanted to take over the world for its own good, and we're just going to _let her go_?"

"What's your suggestion?" asked Jenna.

"Thanks for not leaving this one up to me," Seraph added.

"If you, Garet of Vale, my brave, idiotic boyfriend, who have destroyed so many evil monsters, were split in two, and we ended up with one half that hated evil and another half that loved to destroy, would you want to answer for the things the second half did?" continued Jenna, and Garet shut up under the onslaught, preferring to run the phrase 'brave, idiotic boyfriend' over in his head a few times.

"She's good at that," Justice commented no one in particular.  "I'm going to be sad to see you go."

"And indeed you should be going," said Kieran.  "No doubt there are a great many Adepts wondering what has happened here, and for now you have little reason to remain.  The land is still quite inhospitable."

Indeed, as the Adepts spoke the sun was rising on the underside of Weyard, setting on their own homelands, and its glow illuminated the vast expanses of grey, dead earth and stone.  Kieran moved as though she was throwing something toward the dawn, and the Sol beacon resonated with her command, projecting a flickering orb of light into the distance.

"That was pretty cool," Ivan commented.

"Small enough help for you, to whom I owe so much.  You should be able to use Teleport Psynergy to get to the edge of the world and find your ship again," Kieran explained.

"Does anyone else find that worldly sage thing grates on you after a while?" asked Felix.

"Oh, quiet," said Picard, grinning.

In a series of flashes the Sol Djinn separated from the other Adepts, gathering around Kieran.  They did not ally with her, though.  These ten were equals, and together they would protect the Sol Lighthouse.  It was what they were for.  It wasn't a bad purpose in life, Kieran decided.

"Thanks a lot for your help, Halo," said Isaac, knowing he owed his life to the little elemental.  "And for the record, it wasn't 'from'.  It was 'to'."  Halo grinned, but wouldn't explain it to the others.

"Thanks for knocking Picard out before he got too far, Guardian," added Jenna.

"And thanks for taking some of the strain off the rest of us for a while," said Gust.  "Back to work now, I suppose."

"Too bad.  It was a nice rest," Balm agreed, perched in Mia's hair in the preferred Djinni style.

"Good bye, Bane," said Harmony.

The ancient Venus Djinni didn't seem to know what to say for a moment.  "Farewell, m'lady," he said at last.  Harmony grinned.

"We'll see each other again, old man," Harmony assured him.  She glanced at the Adepts, who all immediately found the sunrise exceptionally beautiful and worthy of their full attention, including Kieran.  "And remember," she whispered, sidling a little closer, "you may feel it a little more, but you are not really so much older than I."  Bane turned slightly darker brown and vanished, and Harmony laughed.  Lyrics wafted about on the breeze, and after a moment the Adepts realised that Kieran was singing.

"_Speed the rising sun, make the breeze to blow, bid the robins sing, bid the roses grow,_" she called, raising her arms, and the beacon of Sol Lighthouse blazed brighter again, this time shining a ray on the ground below.  The Adepts watched, and after a moment it started to turn brown, then became flecked with green.  The ray kept shining, and then started to move, leaving a trail of new plants and fertile soil in its wake.  "There should be forests," she stated to no one.

Isaac looked at the others, all of whom were silent, not wanting to disturb the suddenly fascinated Alchemy Adept.  "I think we should go," he said, putting and arm around Mia and starting to turn away.

The others followed, but the whirled back at the cry of a Sorro'wing, swooping past the Lighthouse with a predator's scream.  Kieran noticed it, and waved a hand.  The bird's metal feathers started to glow.

"What are you doing?" asked Picard, concerned.  The Sorro'wing felt the sudden heat, and screamed now in anger.  The feathers turned red, began to melt, and it screamed in pain.  Light engulfed the creature, and only giant flames that reached past the blinding centre could been seen.  From inside the whiteness there was an explosion, and molten iron drop rained down on the earth far below.

"Kieran!" shouted Felix.  "What the hell-"

The flames had not stopped, but with another cry, this one like the beginning of a song, a blazing shape flew forth, a red and yellow bird encased in fire.  It flapped away, seemingly unaware of the transformation.  "I like phoenixes," Kieran whispered.

"By the Spirits," said Picard.  The Adepts said nothing, simply watched the phoenix for a moment.  Then they left, silently, wondering precisely what they had just seen.

Kieran knew they were gone, but it didn't much worry her.  They might be friends, she decided.  Perhaps the next time they met, she could find out.  But for now, there was much to be done.  She thought of the wide expanses of the barren earth, and the few unusual things that could be found there.  She remembered the Drenmar.

"There should be wolves," she said to the Djinn.

Picard's ship ploughed through the waves quickly, on a course straight for Angara, as straight for Vale as the Adepts were ever likely to get on the ocean.  After so long on the dry underside, Picard didn't mind using even more Psynergy to steer the ship; he was rejuvenated simply by the spray of mist off the rippling waters.  Most of the others were behind him, enjoying the wind or the warmth of the sunlight.

"You two didn't seem all that surprised to see Isaac alive," Felix commented, and Sheba and Ivan blushed slightly.

"Well, we would have told you sooner-" began Sheba.

"But the middle of a life-or-death battle didn't seem like the time-" Ivan explained.

"And I wouldn't have wanted to tell Lycoris or Orian that he had just called back all the Venus Djinn," Sheba finished.  "There was really only one explanation for nine Djinn simply leaving."

"And the kid who goes around messing with everyone else's thoughts would also have picked up on that, wouldn't he?" asked Jenna, ruffling Ivan's hair, though in the high wind it hardly seemed worth it.

"Yeah, and how about- Spirits, can't one of you do something about that noise?" asked Garet, who was beginning to get flustered within hearing of the back of the ship.  Ivan laughed and compressed a wall of air around the middle of the deck, halting any sound that might have come through.

"Music hater," Jenna joked, and Garet twitched away from her tickling hand.

"Where are Isaac and Mia, anyway?" asked Felix.

"Well," said Ivan, "you remember when the dwarves at Loho noticed that we had 'lost our sail in a storm', so they gave us a new one along with the cannon?"

                "Yes…" said Felix slowly.

                "They decided not to waste such a kind gift," Sheba finished.

                "Oh."

                The sound that had been bothering Garet originated near the back of the ship, between the wall of the upper cabin and the rail at the hull's edge.  A little bit of creative tying had turned the unnecessary sail into an excellent hammock that could probably have held half a dozen people.

                "_Say you love, love me forever, never stop, never whatever, near and far and always and everywhere and everything," sang Isaac, feeling better than he had in many weeks.  The sail really was quite comfortable, and the sunlight was warm and bright, but the feeling was based most of all, he expected, on the fact that Mia was nestled beside him, eyes closed as though almost asleep, but smiling as she listened to Isaac's words._

                "It's also pretty good not be wearing bloodstained armor, too.  I'd never have expected an Imilian cloak to feel so light," Mia stated.

                "You're not a Jupiter Adept.  How did you know I was thinking that?"

                "I was thinking the same thing.  It was a safe guess.  Tell me more about this 'everywhere and everything' idea of yours."

                "It's not mine."

                "A minor detail.  Continue, I insist."

                "You already know I love you."

                "And I quite enjoy hearing it spoken over and over again.  Are you going to keep singing or not?"

                "You're not at all worried about what the others might think we're doing?"

                "I could care less what anyone else thinks."

                "…I guess you're right," Isaac admitted.

                "Then _say, say it again," Mia repeated with a smile._

                The ship sailed on, back towards home.

**[Author's Notes] **And so Shining in the Darkness ends.  My apologies for the crazy length of this chapter, not to mention thanks and congratulations to anyone who's read this far.  If, as I hope, you're wishing for more of Kieran and the Sol Djinn, just keep in mind that, most of the time, Harmony _does know everything.  Credit goes to the muse, without whom I doubt this would have been nearly as good as I hope you've found it, so if you liked it or hated it or want more of the Sol Djinn or want to know why I didn't kill of Lycoris most violently, then REVIEW!  It's the surest way to get what you want.  (It's right down there at the bottom of the page.  Go ahead, I won't tell anyone.)  Ja mata ne!_


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